Teen girl's happy snap with dog goes horribly wrong
A German shepherd left a 17-year-old girl’s face needing 40 stitches after it bit her face while she posed with the dog for photos.
Lara Sanson, who reportedly lives in the province of Tucuman in north-western Argentina, was posing with her best friend’s dog, called Kenai, when it suddenly bit her face as she hugged it.
In an album of photos initially shared by the teenager to Twitter, the dog can be seen with its jaw open wide and its teeth wrapped around a large part of her face.
She told local newspaper La Nacion she was not sure if the dog was reacting to something she did when it took the sizeable bite into her.
“I do not know if I touched its hip or if it reacted like this because it is old, or it was because I hugged it and scared it,” she told the publication.
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The teen girl received about 40 stitches, both internal and external, during a two-hour operation, according to reports.
Despite the ordeal, and sustaining several cuts across her face, Lara said the experience was not as painful as people might have thought.
“I only had some bother due to the inflammation and eating problems,” she said.
Vet Juan Enrique Romero told La Nacion that Kenai might have reacted in such a way because of its age.
“Its pains are growing and a pain could have generated this reaction,” he said.
Lara said the dog would not be put down.
She posted the photos online with the caption “a photo shoot goes wrong”.
“A dog should never be hugged from the neck, don’t put your face near it, as their instinct tells them you are going to attack them, the neck is the most vulnerable part of a dog. Glad it was not worse,” one person wrote.
“It is a question of education,” someone else said.
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