A mum has told it was either "the dog or my child" when she grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the dog to death after it began mauling her daughter.
Jamie Morales leapt to the defence of her one-year-old to fend off the family dog that had started to attack her when she began crying.
The reported pitbull had a hold of the leg of little Ruby Cervantes who was rushed to hospital with leg, ankle and shoulder injuries and is undergoing surgery for a hip fracture.
A second pitbull had also joined the attack on the one-year-old that took place at the house in Pico Rivera, California last Sunday night.
The mum first tried to pull the dogs off the child, but when that failed she went to the kitchen for a knife.
Jamie suffered arm and facial injuries trying to protect her child.
She told foxla.com : "I stabbed him to get him off of my daughter. It was either him or my daughter and I chose my daughter. I did what I had to do because he wouldn’t let go."
She added: "I feel really bad but I had to. I’m pretty sure anyone would have done it."
Ruby's grandmother Margaret Morales and an aunt were also injured in the attack by the pitbulls.
The gran, reports the Daily Star, told ABC 7 : "I walked into the kitchen and that's when I (saw)...my two daughters and my son on the floor trying to get the dogs off. Finally, my daughter got up...and that's when I (saw) my granddaughter."
Margaret had owned the dogs, who came from the same litter, since they were puppies.
"I (saw) the dog was latched on her left leg. That's when I had to actually get my hand into his jaws and open them up and that's when he released her," she said.
"He had her by the leg and I had to get his teeth off her," Margaret also told KTLA, adding, "He bit my hand and my hand's pretty severely cut open."
"I thought my daughter was going to die," Jamie said.
"But she's strong," Margaret added.
The dog that survived will be taken to animal control and will be euthanised, according to NBC Los Angeles.
"Like many others this morning I was horrified and dismayed at the news of the unprovoked attack on a one year child by a family's pit bulls," Pico Rivera Mayor Monica Sanchez said in a statement, according to KTLA.
"I'd like to extend our deepest condolences to the family and best wishes for a swift recovery for the child and injured members of the family."
