Parents upset neighbor allowed to keep dog they say attacked 16-year-old daughter

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Parents are wondering why a neighbor is allowed to keep one of its two Rottweilers they say mauled their 16-year-old daughter.

The family says they can no longer take walks around their neighborhood because of this attack.

Now, they’re frustrated the county is allowing for at least one of the dogs to return.

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“I got to live with this in constant fear they’re just going to bring the dogs back,” Sanyah Aquil said.

It’s trauma Nasir Aquil says he’s trying to help his two daughters get through.

“There were holes all in her arms. They were just bleeding. She was just fighting off the dogs,” he said.

Earlier this month he says he got the frantic phone call from his 17-year-old daughter.

“It was one of the most disturbing phone calls I’ve ever had,” Nasir said.

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The call he received told him that his 16-year-old Sanyah was getting mauled by two Rottweilers in their neighborhood.

“I heard Sanyah screaming in the background, something a parent doesn’t want to hear,” he said.

“It was just blood everywhere, blood on my shoes and my fanny pack was soaking wet with blood,” Sanyah said.

She told Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln both dogs latched onto both of her legs.

She’s now healing after being bitten more than 30 times.

“I don’t even want to ride the bike anymore. I don’t want to go outside. I just want to sit in the house and never come out.”

Sanyah said she was leaving a convenience store on her bike with her sister, riding through this neighborhood when those two dogs attacked her.

“We were going to bring my baby sisters, and their dogs; I’m so glad we didn’t bring them,” Sanyah said.

Nasir says the dogs were able to slip through the fence from a home in the 1600 block of Spoonbill Road.

Channel 2 tried reaching out to the homeowner, but we did not hear back.

“If the dogs would have hit an artery, she wouldn’t be here,” Nasir said.

He says he isn’t pleased with the Clayton County Animal Control’s decision to return one of the dogs.

“They deemed him vicious but they still gave the dogs back,” Nasir said.

Channel 2 found it’s a state law that frees pet owners from any liability from a first-time bite offense, but if the animal bites again, the owner could face criminal or civil action.

“The dogs are big; these dogs are huge,” Nasir said.

Other neighbors have been bitten by these dogs, but they never officially reported the bites to animal control – a factor that allows these dogs to return home.

“For them to get the dogs back, I think Clayton County is missing something,” Nasir said.

“I just want them gone and out of this neighborhood. I don’t think it’s fair that they’re bringing the dogs back,” he said.

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