Elmhurst Hospital

Baby Girl Bitten in Face by Dog at Queens Home: Police

A 1-year-old girl was in surgery Monday night after she was bitten in the face by a pit bull, police said.

The girl was with her babysitter at a home on 102nd Street in Jackson Heights Monday evening during the attack, authorities say.

The two teenage sons of the babysitter had apparently been watching a friend’s pit bull in the backyard of the home at the time. When the babysitter was headed to the backyard to feed the dog, she opened a door and it came through with a bone in its mouth, police said.

 The baby girl apparently tried to take the bone from the dog and it lunged forward, biting her in the face, according to police.

The girl was taken to Elmhurst Hospital in critical but stable condition. She was said to have very bad lacerations to her face.

NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers secured the pit bull in a crate and Animal Control Centers later took the dog, according to police.

Animal control authorities said the animal would be put on a 10-day rabies observation plan. After that, next steps would be determined based on medical and behavioral information. 

The girl’s family was too distraught to talk on camera. Neighbors, meanwhile, were in shock.

“The animal didn’t seem bad,” one neighbor said. “We’ve seen them for years, and it just never seemed bad.”

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