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Crime

28th Apr 2022

Mum forced to stab family dog to death as it mauls one-year-old daughter

Kieran Galpin

‘I feel really bad but I had to. I’m pretty sure anyone would have done it’

After the family dog began mauling her daughter, a mother was forced into action and grabbed a kitchen knife to stab the pooch.

Jamie Morales was in an awful position after one-year-old Ruby Cervantes began crying and consequently sent the family pitbull into attack mode. Another pitbull reportedly joined the attack, leaving Morales with a sense of “the dog or my child” at their home in Pico Rivera, California, on Saturday evening.

Having first tried to pull the dogs away, Morales went to the kitchen to fetch a knife. The mother suffered arm and facial injuries while her baby was rushed to hospital with severe leg, ankle, and shoulder injuries. She is undergoing surgery to address a hip fracture caused by the attack. Grandmother Margaret Morales and Ruby’s aunt were also injured in the attack.

“I stabbed him to get him off of my daughter. It was either him or my daughter and I chose my daughter. I did what I had to do because he wouldn’t let go,” Morales told Fox News. “I feel really bad but I had to. I’m pretty sure anyone would have done it.”

“I walked into the kitchen and that’s when I (saw)…my two daughters and my son on the floor trying to get the dogs off,” Margaret Morales told ABC7. “Finally, my daughter got up…and that’s when I (saw) my granddaughter.”

Fox

Margaret detailed how she managed to get her hands in the dog’s jaws, which allowed her to prize them open.

“He had her by the leg and I had to get his teeth off her,” Margaret also told KTLA. “He bit my hand and my hand’s pretty severely cut open.”

“I thought my daughter was going to die,” Jamie told the outlet.

“But she’s strong,” Margaret added.

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