A women has spoken about the horrifying moment five dogs belonging to a neighbour mauled her two-year-old niece in her back garden.
Sandra McKevitt could only watch in horror as the animals attacked her niece Ella at the property in Toxteth, Liverpool, on May 7, 2016. Ms McKevitt said the American Bully dogs, a cross between American bulldogs and mastiffs, were ‘tearing away at her like she was a piece of meat’.
They belonged to puppy farm owner Andrew McGowan, who kept up to 18 American Bully pets. He has since been jailed for 18 months and banned from keeping dogs for 12 years.
Recalling the attack, Ms McKevitt said she was having a picnic with her two young nieces and nephew when she heard the dogs barking and a ‘big bang’ before seeing the dog’s head as it burst through the fence into the garden.
The dog bit Ella and then others joined in and started attacking the toddler. Ms McKevitt desperately tried to protect Ella but could not fight off the huge dogs, which can weigh up to 11 stone each.
She told the BBC: ‘Her face just didn’t look anything like her, swollen, stitches everywhere, your heart just broke. ‘Her cheek was hanging off, you could see her scalp, there were cuts near her eye. ‘She was bleeding everywhere, I honestly thought she wouldn’t survive.
Your heart just broke looking at her, no one should have to go through anything like that.’
Ella was rushed to the city’s Alder Hey Hospital where she underwent 12 hours of reconstructive surgery.
The court heard Ella would be left permanently scarred by the attack.
She suffered lacerations to her right cheek, chin, neck and above her right eye as well as puncture wounds to the side of her head which went down to the bone and injuries to her arms, legs and ribs.
McGowan was arrested and admitted being in charge of a number of out-of-control dogs at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates’ Court in June 2017.
Four of his dogs were humanely destroyed and the rest were re-homed.
