girl mauled by dog
© WKRGZoey Green was accompanying her mother Paige Woody on Saturday. Woody had agreed to pet sit two dogs in Crestview, Florida
A five-year-old girl was mauled by a pit bull mix in a vicious attack that left her with a broken jaw, a torn eyelid and countless stitches and staples.
Zoey Green was accompanying her mother Paige Woody, who agreed to pet sit two dogs in Crestview, Florida, on Saturday when a pit bull mix named Mandingo suddenly lunged at her, bit her in the face and dragged her into the yard.

Paige managed to fight the dog off and covered her daughter's body with her own before she was airlifted to an intensive care unit in critical condition, WKRG reported. Paige showed up to the home on Villacrest Drive for the third time so the owner could show her how to apply a horsefly spray to the two dogs in the backyard.

She didn't want to leave her daughter in the car, so she brought Zoey along, making sure the five-year-old stayed inside the house even though the owner said the dogs were great with children. But the girl became impatient and started tapping on the glass door, so Paige cracked the door open to talk to her.

'I cracked the door to say we're getting ready to leave and as soon as I cracked the door, the dog yanked her out by the face,' Paige said.

Once the door was ajar, Mandingo saw the opportunity to lunge at Zoey, biting the girl in the face and dragging her into the yard, Paige told WEARTV.

The owner was busy holding the other dog back while Paige fought the dog off her daughter and shielded her from harm.

But Paige soon realized her daughter was losing significant amounts of blood, and crawled into the house to call 911 with Zoey tucked underneath her.

The mother received 28 staples and stitches at the North Okaloosa Medical Center while Zoey had her eyelid reattached.

Doctors managed to save her eye, and photos of the horrifying injuries also show numerous lacerations on her face and head.

The girl was also airlifted to Sacred Heart, where she underwent a nine-hour surgery for her broken jaw.

Doctors managed to piece the broken bone together, choosing to hold off on inserting a titanium plate because it would require additional surgeries every year before she stopped growing.

Her father Jonny Green told Northwest Florida Daily News: 'They didn't want me to see one side of her face, it was so bad. The side of her face I could see was bad, too. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen.'

Zoey is still on the road to recovery, while both dogs are quarantined at the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society, where their fate remains unclear.

The owner initially told Paige the dogs had been euthanized, and later said the paperwork hadn't been signed. She appeared hesitant to do so through a series of text messages and suggested her pet wasn't responsible, WEARTV reported.