Mum’s face ‘ripped off’ by best friend’s rottweiler in vile street attack
'I think I made the mistake of trying to calm the dog down because he looks distressed. But he just saw red and turned.'
A mum feared her friend’s dog was going to ‘pull her face off’ after it attacked her in the street unprovoked.
Kelsea Morgan was visiting a friend in Swansea, Wales when she heard a commotion outside. When they went to investigate, her friend’s rottweiler pitbull mix getting ‘wound up’ and running in and out of the house.
33-year-old Kelsea sat down next to the dog to try and soothe it and calm it down – but out of nowhere the dog ‘saw red’ and sunk its teeth into her face.
The dog stayed clamped onto her face for around 20 seconds, leaving her terrified it would rip her face off.
Kelsea’s face was cut open, with a gash in a nostril, cheek and a split septum.
She received 24 stitches during emergency surgery and doctors told her she would be scarred for life.
The attack happened in September 2022 and to this day Kelsea won’t leave the house without makeup.
She explained: ‘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.
‘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.
‘He was probably only attached to my face for 10 to 20 seconds but time goes so slow when you’re in a panic.
‘There was so much blood that I couldn’t see. I was wiping the blood away and I kept checking my hands to see if any flesh had come off.
‘On the left side of my face just below my cheek I had a three inch wound. I had to have 15 stitches in the hole in my cheek, six when I had my septum done and three in my nostril.
‘My septum was split and was coming away so it had to be stitched so it would grow back to the shape it was meant to be.’
Following the operation Kelsea was left unable to talk, laugh or eat for a week while her wounds began to heal.
She was also left ‘ashamed’ of her scars, adding: ‘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. I hid away in my house for a while. I didn’t want to see anyone for how my scars had left me.
‘When the incident first happened, I used to have dreams and wake up in the night thinking my face wasn’t there. The medications were quite strong too so this could have played a part.’
Following her attack, Kelsea reported the incident to South Wales Police and the rottweiler pitbull mix was subjected to a destruction order.
The dog’s owner was charged with being a person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury.
After pleading guilty to the offence, the individual was given a 12-month community order, six month tagged curfew and was also ordered to pay court costs and £1,000 in compensation to Kelsea for her injuries.
Despite the dog being put down, Kelsea says the attack has left her ‘petrified’ of them and warns other owners about the natural animal instincts of canines.
She told The Mirror: ‘I’m petrified of dogs now. I just wouldn’t trust dogs, even the ones you have in your own house as they are wild animals and they have a natural instinct to attack.
‘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.’
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