Elena Allison was outside playing with three friends, when she said their neighbor, Mark Robinson, walked by with his pit bull, Presley.
"We asked (Robinson) if we could pet Presley," said Elena. "The dog was being really nice to all of us for about 10 minutes and then he just snapped," she said.
Clark County Sheriff's officials confirmed that the dog bit Elena on the mouth.
"I had my hands covering my face and I looked down and it was all bloody," said Elena. "My whole face just went numb." Elena's parents took her to the hospital where doctors used twenty-six stitches to secure her upper lip and a puncture wound on her chin.
Elena's mother, Heike Allison, said Robinson had been supervising Presley and was holding him on a leash when the attack happened. Because of that, she said she doesn't buy the notion that pit bulls only behave the way they're trained to.
"It's not so much that pit bulls are bad," said Allison, "But why risk it? Why risk having your child, or a neighbor's child get bitten like that and having to get twenty-six stitches? It just doesn't make sense," she said.
Allison added that she thinks the breed should at least be required to wear muzzles in residential areas. She said she plans to start a neighborhood petition to encourage her home-owners association to place restrictions on residents who own pit bulls, or ban the the breed altogether.
Allison's neighbor, Leroy Pena supports the idea. Three of his kids were with Elena when she was attacked and he said the way the dog acted afterwards was especially bizarre.
"Seeing the dog go from being happy-go-lucky, then to biting her, then going back to wagging its tail and being happy again? That freaked me out," said Pena.
Robinson didn't answer his door Sunday night , but officials with Clark County said he voluntarily surrendered Presley to Animal Control services. Shelter officials told KGW the dog would be euthanized this week.
The Allisons hadn't filed criminal charges against Robinson, but said he agreed to have Presley euthanized.
Since the attack, Elena has had to use a straw when she drinks, and the sixth grader will miss playing a flute solo at her school's band concert next month. But Elena, an avid dog lover, said the hardest part of recovering from her injuries is knowing they were caused by one of her favorite animals.
Now she has a warning for those who think certain dogs, including pit bulls, would never bite. "It could happen to anybody," she said.
This is the third time a pit bull has attacked in the region, in just the past three weeks.
Last week in Happy Valley, a dad had to fight off a pit bull that was attacking his young daughter. And earlier in McMinnville, the same dog attacked two different people on the same day.
In the Happy Valley incident, Jayda Kempas had to undergo surgery at Doernbecher Children's Hospital for puncture wounds from the dog. Her dad, 31-year-old Steve Hehr of Gladstone, also had to be treated at the hospital for injuries he suffered while fighting off the dog.
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Woman attacked by her pit bullby zupf141,528 views
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