Labrador rips off girl’s lips after straying from owner

A school girl had both of her lips and a section of her cheek ripped off by a labrador that randomly attacked without warning, her mum says.

Lily-Fay Parfitt, nine, had to have 230 stitches in her face and will be ‘scarred for life’ after she was mauled while playing on her aunt’s farm in Pulborough, West Sussex, earlier this month.

She was left unable to hear out of her right ear or close her right eye fully, her mum Kelly said.

The schoolgirl was playing with her cousins and two younger brothers when the labrador – who was on a lead – ‘made a beeline for her’.

Mum-of-five Kelly said the dog’s owner had left their pet tied up but the length of the lead meant the dog was able to run towards Lily-Fay.

She claimed: ‘Lily saw the dog and stopped and turned, she didn’t even step towards the dog. The dog actually came straight to her.

‘I heard an ear-piercing scream as it grabbed her top lip and tore out her cheek, leaving catastrophic wounds.

‘My mum got to her before I did because I had her baby brother in my arms, she told me “don’t come near” and pushed me away.

‘The injuries to Lily’s face is something that I never want to see again. Her top jaw, her top teeth, her tongue and bottom jaw had been degloved.’

Lily-Fay had 192 stitches on the outside of her cheek to hold it together, 38 stitches in her lip and an unknown number inside her cheek.

The dog took off so much skin that she lost 25 percent from her top lip and surgeons were concerned that stitching her up too tightly may leave her mouth drooping.

Kelly said the injuries could prove ‘life changing’.

She added: ‘The surgeon took one look at her and said “we don’t know if she will get senses back” because of the severity of the injury.

‘She has slight hearing loss out of her ear which we don’t know if it is going to come back.

‘She can’t close her eye fully at night time, so they’re going to put eye drops in to stop her eye from drying out.’

The carer, from Southwater, West Sussex, said she has taken all the mirrors down at home so Lily-Fay isn’t shocked by her reflection.

Kelly reported the incident to Sussex Police, who said: ‘Officers responded to reports of a child being bitten at a farm in Pulborough between 6pm and 7pm on Friday, 20 September.

‘The girl suffered serious facial injuries and was taken to hospital.

‘The owners of the dog have been identified and are assisting police with the ongoing investigation.’