Dog attacks 10-year-old boy in Plymouth

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A 10-year-old is recovering after a neighbor’s dog attacked him Thursday night.

His family said the boy was saying hello to a nearby neighbor, in the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park, when the dog hopped the fence and attacked.

“I was just yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs because it hurt my arm,” said Dawson Crittendon, the boy who was bitten by the dog. “I was scared, I just kept trying to kick the dog and it wouldn’t get off.”

Crittendon said he sprinted over to his son and tried to get the dog to let go.

“I mean I kept hitting the dog until the point when I finally hit it so hard that I cracked my knuckle and I felt the dog pull away,” said Crittendon.

Crittendon said he dragged Dawson away from the dog back to their deck, where Dawson’s aunt called 911 and his uncle applied a tourinquet to Dawson’s arm to try and stop the bleeding.

“There was blood everywhere,” said Crittendon. 

an ambulance took dawson to plymouth hospital where he was later trasferred to riley children’s health in indianapolis--

Doctors told his parents he was bitten 22 times, one bite was just one centimeter away from a major artery.

“That dog was one centimeter from his main artery which means he would be dead right now if we wouldn’t have got the dog off of him when we did,” said Crittendon.

Today his parents say they’re thankful that they didn’t lose their son, but said their home away from home will never be the same.

“It’s traumatized his whole life, what he’s used to, where he feels comfortable and safe, now he doesn’t,” said Crittendon.

The family said Marshall County Sherriff Department won’t be criminally charging the owner. And the dog is currently at Marshall County Humane Society for a 10-day quarantine.

The dad said he wants the dog put down.

“I don’t want anyone to suffer the way I’ve suffered,” said Shaun Crittendon, the boy’s father. “I’ve never in my life felt powerless to be able to help my child.”

The family said the humane society says they need approval from the sheriff’s department--to put the dog down. But Jackie Bradley, Dawson’s aunt, wrote that Nancy Cox, the director of the Marshall County Humane Society, deemed the dog as vicious.

ABC 57 News reached out to both the Humane Society and Sherriff’s D0epartment for comment, but offices are closed for the weekend.

The family said they will be meeting with Nelson Chipman, a prosecutor in Marshall County, tomorrow.

And people at the park contacted ABC 57 News saying dawson provoked the dog before it attacked, but his parents said that is not true.