Britt Jones
A terrifying altercation left a mum afraid her friend’s dog was ‘pulling her face off’ after the rottweiler-pitbull cross latched onto her.
Kelsea Morgan was having a day like any other in Swansea, Wales, visiting her friend.
But things took a turn for the worst when an incident broke out in the street outside, which sent her pal’s dog into a ‘wound up’ state.
According to Kelsea, the giant dog started running in and out of the house ‘distressed’ and when she sat down next to the animal to calm it down, it ‘saw red’ and lurched at her face.
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The trainee solicitor's face was in the dog’s grip for 20 seconds, leaving her with a cut-open cheek, a slash in her nostril, and a three-inch hole in her cheek as well as a split septum.
The mum-of-one needed emergency facial reconstructive surgery which resulted in 24 stitches and was told by her doctors that she would be scarred for life.
The attack happened back in September 2022, and Kelsea says she still won't go out without makeup on and becomes angry when she looks at herself in the mirror.
Kelsea recalled the horrific moment: "We heard an altercation on the street and the dog ran out and was running back and forth in and out of the house and getting quite wound up.
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"I think I made the mistake of trying to calm the dog down because he looks distressed.
"But he just saw red and turned. There was nothing I could say that made the dog attack me.
"He latched onto my face and I thought it was going to pull my face off. I held onto the dog as much as I could to try and get him to release.”
After a one-and-a-half-hour operation, Kelsea said that she wasn’t able to talk, eat or laugh for a week during the healing process.
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Now, 18 months on, she said she was left 'ashamed' of her scars.
Kelsea said: "I had to go in for emergency surgery and I was so frightened of what I would look like [afterwards]. The surgeon said he would make me look as good as possible.
"[After surgery], I felt terrible and I didn't want to go home to my daughter as I didn't want her to see my face.
"I couldn't talk, laugh, yawn or eat for at least a week after the operation.
"I was on really strong painkillers too which meant I couldn't drive or work.
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"I hid away in my house for a while. I didn't want to see anyone for how my scars had left me.
"I was ashamed of what I looked like and I couldn't look at my mum without crying.
After the attack, Kelsea reported it to the South Wales Police and the dog was quickly subjected to a destruction order, with the owner being charged for being in possession of a dog who was out of control.
After pleading guilty, they were handed a 12-month community order, six-month tagged curfew and £1,000 in compensation to Kelsea.
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But now Kelsea is ‘petrified’ of dogs and notes that the specific breed of dog is a protector.
Kelsea said: "When I was younger we used to wind our pet dog up and it would give us a warning but with this breed of dog [the one that attacked me], they are just so strong.
"When he had hold of me, I could not get him off me and this is why I thought he had bitten my face off.
"These dogs over the years have been trained to be protectors and have a natural instinct to attack and are the most likely [breed] to attack."