Wed, October 29, 2003

After eight hours of emergency surgery forced by a horrific dog mauling, 11-year-old Jynnie Kent looked up at her dad and started crying. "She was crying to me, saying 'It wasn't my fault, Daddy, it wasn't my fault,'" said Jynnie's dad, Clark Kent, who was at her critical -care bedside at Sick Kids hospital Monday night after the first day of surgery was completed.

"And it wasn't her fault," he said yesterday. "She was attacked by dogs."

The Pickering girl was back in surgery yesterday as doctors worked for hours yet again to mend more than 150 puncture wounds, extensive nerve damage and a leg that was chewed to the bone.

Two dogs -- Dogue de Bordeaux, a rare breed raised by Jynnie's grandmother -- have been singled out and are in quarantine.

Police said the pair of dogs turned on Jynnie at her grandmother's house near Uxbridge Sunday after the 11-year-old mistakenly unlatched a kennel belonging to one of the male dogs. Her grandmother has been a dog breeder for 36 years. The police have not yet spoken with Jynnie.

"But Jynnie said the dogs were free in the yard when she went outside to play," Kent said. "They attacked her in a pack.

"She said to me, 'They were eating me, Daddy, I tried to scream but Daddy they bit my neck and I couldn't scream. I was just waiting there to die.'"

QUARANTINED

Police are still investigating and are eager to speak with Jynnie and her sister, who Kent said was also at the grandmother's house during the attacks. The dogs -- 55-kilogram Traveller and 50-kilogram Warrior -- will be in quarantine until next week.

"But there were more than two dogs in that attack," Kent said. "She has 150 puncture wounds, her clothes were shredded apart like she was food, think about that. All those dogs need to be put down.

"I don't want my daughter to go through life having people think she made a mistake, that she did something wrong. She didn't."

Doctors told Kent there is a real chance of severe kidney problems but her leg will be fine. In one of the surgeries, doctors removed arteries in right leg and put them in her left.

During the eight hours of surgery on Monday, three were spent just cleaning Jynnie and removing torn skin.

A grave concern for the family now is infection, Kent said.

"She's missing parts of her body," he said. "It's amazing she's still alive."

Dogue de Bordeaux is a rare breed that looks like a bullmastiff, but closer in size and shape to a pitbull. It became well known in the Tom Hanks' film Turner and Hooch. Originally they were used as guardians and fighters.