A schoolgirl has been left scarred for life after being mauled by an out-of-control devil dog in a harrowing TEN minute attack.
Tamia White, 11, had “chunks of flesh” ripped from her arms and legs when her neighbour’s crazed hound attacked on January 19.
She had been leaving for school when the Staffordshire Bull Terrier – named AV after Aston Villa FC – pounced outside her home in Quinton, Birmingham.
The youngster was taken to hospital with blood pouring from puncture wounds to her left arm and both legs.
Incredibly, the owners of the eight-year-old dog have since claimed their pet is “a real softie” and had never attacked before.
Today Tamia’s dad Thamar White, 37, a lab technician, said: “I was at work when I heard what happened.
“Tamia walked out to go to school after we’d all gone to work and as she turned the key she saw the dog and it attacked.
“It was ten minutes until our neighbour managed to get it off. She’s lucky to be alive.
“Now our neighbour is trying to claim their dog would never do that and that Tamia wound it up stamping up and down or some rubbish.
“I have seen the injuries to my daughter, there is no way the neighbour saw what happened before the dog attacked.
“If she did then she watched her dog maul my daughter for ten minutes and cause serious injuries to her and did nothing.
“When I got back I saw Tamia was covered in blood. When our neighbour got the dog off she didn’t even call an ambulance – she called her sister.
“It just really gets me how little concern they have shown, they have not come once to apologise.
“And then I hear them saying their dog is a softie.
“He may well have been, I never saw him before, but now he’s attacked a child.
“He needs to be destroyed, he’s got the taste of blood now. I can’t believe how selfish they have been.
“Our two-year-old often runs out into the corridor on her own – what if it was her?
“You should not be allowed to have dogs like that.”
Tamia was taken by ambulance to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where she underwent three hours of surgery.
She suffered four major bites to her left arm and both legs, muscle and nerve damage, lots of scratches and will be on crutches for three weeks.
Although she is expected to make a full recovery, she has been warned she will need skin grafts and will be scarred for life.
Reliving her terrifying ordeal Tamia said: “I’d let myself out of the flat and was locking the door when I turned round and the dog was there.
“He was running around loose on the landing and what happened next is just a blur.
“I remember him grabbing hold of my leg with its mouth with so much force it wouldn’t let go.
“I started screaming and tried to get back into my flat, but couldn’t because it wouldn’t let go of my leg.
“I was screaming my head off and that’s when both the owners came out of the door.
“The man was kicking the dog to get it off me, while the woman had to put her hand in the dog’s mouth to separate us.
“I can’t remember much of what happened, but I think the whole thing went on for about 10 minutes.”
Tamia’s mum, Arnolda Farrell, 34, a case manager with Barclays bank, said medics told the family the attack could have been fatal.
The pregnant mother-of-two, who is also mum to Kaelen, two, said: “She was fighting the dog on her own for several minutes before anyone arrived.
“Although she was terrified, she had the sense to jump up and down to try and stop the dog biting her face.
“I was at work when this happened and Tamia rang me, crying, saying she’d been attacked by a dog.
“I asked if an ambulance had been called and she said it hadn’t so I rang for one and also the police, then I jumped in my boss’s car and we came straight home.
“It was going to savage her to death if the owners had not run out when they did.
“The doctors said if it had been minutes later, she would have died.
“I know the owners say she’s a real softie, I don’t know if that’s the case, but softie or not, that dog attacked someone.
“Just minutes before I left the flat with my two-year-son – what if the dog had attacked him?”
West Midlands Police confirmed they had seized the dog and launched an investigation.