“My son is hurt, forever.” said Allison Carder.
Carder’s 7-year-old son Isiah Perez was left permanently disfigured after he was viciously attacked by a neighbor's pit bull, which bit off one of his thumbs, authorities said.
Isiah was playing outside his Millville, N.J. duplex around 8 Saturday evening when the 3-year-old dog named "Choice" bolted out of a neighbor’s first floor apartment and suddenly, without being provoked, sank its teeth into the boy’s left arm and right hand, investigators said.
Isiah was airlifted to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia after the attack.
He underwent three hours of surgery and needed close to 100 stitches, his mother said.
“They couldn’t even save his finger,” Carder said.
“I walked away and I wanted to cry. For my 7-year-old to tell me, ‘Mommy, my thumb is gone,’ you know, it’s really hard.”
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The owner of the pit bull wouldn’t open the door for NBC10 News Monday, but she did allow SPCA and animal control investigators inside. They charged her with having a potentially dangerous dog.
The animal was taken to the Cumberland County SPCA after the attack. Authorities say he wasn't vaccinated for rabies and believe the only option is putting him to sleep.
“Given the brutality of the attack, I don’t think it would be in the best interest of anyone to put the dog back on the street,” said Cumberland County SPCA executive director Bev Greco.
“It’s too late now,” Carder said.
Investigators say the dog had previously nipped a different child but the outcome then wasn’t nearly as serious.
“He should have been put to sleep the first time,” Carder said. “Now my child is hurt. He’s scarred for his life and… he has to deal with that now.”
Isiah left the hospital late Monday afternoon.
Once the dog is dead, its body will be tested to make sure it wasn’t rabid.
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