Dog Viciously Attacks CdA Girl

A 3-year-old Coeur d’Alene girl suffered large lacerations to her throat, chest, right and left arms, the back of her head, and her left side when she reportedly was attacked by a neighbor’s Belgian shepherd dog at 6:15 p.m. Sunday. The girl’s father suffered a broken knuckle when he tried to pry the dog’s jaw open to rescue his daughter. The attack began when the girl ran toward her mother as she returned from the grocery store. The dog, one of two running loose on the neighbor’s property, immediately attacked, picking the girl up off the ground and thrashing its head around with the child in its mouth. The girl’s mother told police her child appeared to be in shock and didn’t cry. She simply had a helpless look on her face. The father ran from the back yard to rescue the child. The father told police that the dog is one of two that roam freely in the neighbor’s yard — and that the dogs get aggressive and go “nuts” when he walks by their kiennel.

• Meghann Cuniff’s Sirens & Gavels report on the attack

Question: Have you been bitten by a dog?