Michele Cameron, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter bit by a dog at Ridgemark Thursday evening, is pleading with the owner of the dog to come forward so that her daughter will not have to undergo a painful series of rabies vaccinations on Monday.
Cameron’s daughter was outside Thursday at the twilight hour with two other neighbor boys near Sunny’s Way when her daughter alleges a woman had two dogs off leash nearby. One of the dogs, a chocolate Labrador came up and licked her. But the second dog that approached her, which looked like a black and white Australian cattle dog, allegedly bit her on her lower leg.
“The woman came over and asked if they bit her and my daughter started yelling yes,” Cameron said Friday morning. “She was bleeding profusely. The woman said the dog will attack anything that moves.”
According to Cameron, the woman walked away with her dogs without identifying herself.
“My daughter was about five minutes away and had to limp home, bleeding all over the place,” Cameron said.
Cameron said she immediately washed out the wound before she and her husband looked around the neighborhood to see if they could spot the woman to find out if her dogs had been vaccinated for rabies. Cameron’s husband rushed the girl to the Hazel Hawkins emergency room to treat the wound while Cameron waited for a sheriff’s deputy to take a report on the dog attack.
Sheriff’s deputies did not immediately return a call requesting comments on the case.
“I’m a mom and it’s really hard for me to understand how someone can leave a child who has been attacked bleeding in the street without walking the child home and talking to the parents,” Cameron said. “The only thing I can come up with is that she was trying to protect her dog.”
She said she was concerned the dog would bite another neighborhood child.
After a doctor’s appointment on Friday morning, the Camerons’ physician encouraged them to go door-to-door seeking the dog owner. The doctor told them if they do not locate the owner, the girl will have to start a painful rabies series Monday morning as a preventative measure. The rabies series includes four shots directly into the wound, followed by multiple shots throughout a month period. Her daughter is also on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication to prevent infection in the wound. Cameron said doctors in the emergency room discouraged stitching up the wound because of the bacteria from dog bites so the family has to carefully keep the open wound clean as it heals.
“She can’t walk and she’s an athlete so she’s really upset and kind of in shock,” Cameron said.
Anyone with information about the case or information on the identity of the owners of the dogs, may call the Sheriff’s department at 636-4080 or Animal Control at 636-4320.
