Sarah Padilla, a resident of Antelope Street Extension and mother of 3-year-old Lupita Padilla, who was viciously mauled by their neighbor’s half-breed black pit-bull, spoke to Amandala yesterday at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital at 5:00 p.m., an estimated two hours after the attack, which has since left little Lupita in a critical condition.
Sarah, at the time of the interview, appeared disheveled. The mother had her daughter’s dried blood all over her neck, hands, clothing and feet. Sarah told us that she is uncertain on the exact time of the incident, which took place yesterday, Wednesday, February 2, 2011.
“My daughter was playing in the yard with her friend when I heard her screaming,” said Sarah.
Sarah’s house is located just a few feet away from the pitbull’s residence.
She was inside her house, a house that she and her only child, Lupita, rented only a month ago, when the attack commenced, and she could recall hearing the desperate cries of her daughter as she rushed outside to see why the child was screaming.
“Lupita was playing with her friend and the pit-bull was tied under his house and the chain could reach where my daughter was. The pit-bull grabbed her and pulled her under the house and didn’t want to let go,” said Sarah.
Lupita suffered massive bites on both sides of her face, stomach and legs, and she was bleeding profusely.
According to Sarah, in the moment of complete chaos and desperation, she was assisted by the pitbull’s owner, who tried pulling the pit-bull off the frantic child.
“He didn’t want to let go and I just grabbed him by the neck and pushed it, and the pitbull’s owner chopped it on the head, andthat is how my daughter got free,” said Sarah.
The sight of her daughter’s bloody and limp-looking body shocked Sarah briefly into unconsciousness. She had to be put inside the house, away from her daughter, until the ambulance came, because the sight of her baby-girl was too much for her.
Sarah told us that she does not blame anyone for the attack, because the pitbull was on its chain; she also told us that for the month she has lived there, she has never seen the pitbull acting aggressively.
At press time today, little Lupita, we were told by KHMH representatives, was in a stable condition, but was still under observation.