A four-year-old girl has survived a horrifying ordeal on a beach in Western Australia's southwest. The girl was viscously mauled by a rottweiler, with bystanders forced to use brute strength to get the animal off her.
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00:00A little girl recovering at home, her family struggling to come to terms with what they've
00:10seen.
00:11Four-year-old Lucia was playing in knee-deep water at Quindalup Beach with her older siblings
00:15and mother last week when an off-leash dog raced towards her, grabbing her by the neck,
00:21repeatedly pulling her underwater.
00:23I obviously ran into the water to try and pull Lucia off.
00:27The other two kids that were in the vicinity at the time were also trying to help.
00:33However the power and the strength of a dog of this breed, Rottweiler, and size, you're
00:43powerless to do anything.
00:46A bystander raced in to help, eventually getting the dog off the child, who was now bleeding
00:50heavily and barely responsive.
00:53She was taken to the local hospital and flown to Perth where she underwent surgery for puncture
00:58wounds to her neck, back and shoulder.
01:01When you can see the, sorry it's still quite emotional, but when you can see that their
01:06heartbeat is stable, that's all you care for at that point.
01:11You know that those will heal, but to not know that she was going to survive makes,
01:23you know, yeah, that's hugely traumatic.
01:27The dog involved in the attack has been put down, the City of Busselton saying an investigation
01:32into the incident is underway.
01:34Natalie is speaking out to alert other parents to the unpredictability of dogs and the dangers
01:40that large, powerful breeds can present.
01:43They have the propensity to cause huge amounts of injury or damage.
01:50They are often unpredictable and most of the time when they attack, it's unprovoked.
01:57And that's just not a risk that I think any responsible parent is willing to take, therefore
02:02they need to be armed with the knowledge of this is what these dogs look like and they
02:08cannot be trusted.
02:11Lucia will have ongoing medical treatment to manage her wounds, but is expected to make
02:15a full recovery.