Dog Lunges At 4-Year-Old, Clamps Onto Her Shoulder As Mother Tries Saving Girl

A four-year-old girl from Yorkshire, England, was attacked by a stray dog during a holiday with her family in Turkey.

Speaking to the Mirror on Tuesday, the victim’s parents said the incident took place when they were on a TUI Family Life resort break. The family was headed to the hotel’s private beach when the canine approached them and lunged at the girl, identified as Naomi, before clamping onto her shoulder. The exact date the incident took place was not known.

“A large dog approached us and at first I thought it belonged to somebody on the beach. But then it got really close to us and it had a gash over its eye. Naomi turned around and it clamped onto her shoulder blade,” said 41-year-old Catherine Craig, the girl’s mother.

She attempted to save the girl by pulling the canine off her. However, she was bitten in the process.

"I grabbed the dog and it bit me on the front of my shoulder. Naomi was inconsolable, it was horrible. But the worst thing was the worry afterwards about what could have happened, whether the cut was infected,” she explained.

The family took the girl to three different hospitals before she was finally treated.

"It ruined our holiday for us. That was the only trip we had booked this year. Every day was a write-off with trips back and forth to the hospital. We got home and felt like we hadn't had a holiday,” Craig said.

She thinks TUI should have taken the necessary steps to ensure that no potentially dangerous animals were allowed onto the private beach.

"On a beach that they're saying is private, with security cameras and staff monitoring it, I think that they have a duty of care to look out for these things. If you know there are stray dogs around then you should be looking out to make sure they don't get onto the beach,” she said.

Apologizing for what happened, a TUI spokesman said, "We are sorry to hear of this incident. Our teams in resort work hard to keep our customers safe on their holidays, but we cannot guarantee that the local dogs will stay off the beaches. However, we understand the service Naomi and her family received following the incident did not match the high standards we aim for, and we will therefore be in touch with the customers to apologize and offer a gesture of goodwill. The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our highest priority."