Dog takes chunk of child's face

Three year old Charlize Allen after the attack. Photo / Supplied

A small girl was left with a "chunk of skin" missing from her face after she was mauled by a dog outside a Christchurch dairy.

Her parents are appealing for the owners of the dog to "do the right thing" and come forward.

Charlize Allen, 3, was attacked by a bull mastiff as she was coming out of an Addington dairy with her father on Sunday. Chris Allen said the dog, which was tied up outside, lunged and locked its jaw on to her left cheek.

"Next thing you know he lunged at her. Just straight up attacked her for no reason. I had to hit the dog to get him to let go, Charlize was screaming," he said. "She had this huge chunk of skin missing from her face and I just started panicking."

Mr Allen said the two teenage girls who were with the dog came out of the shop and asked what had happened.

"Then they said, 'Oh, you're not supposed to go near that dog'. So I asked what the hell it was doing tied up outside a dairy without anyone telling people it was dangerous."

He said the girls ran off after the attack and didn't leave any contact details.

A man who was driving past then offered to take Charlize and Mr Allen to the hospital where she had surgery. She needed more than 30 stitches and was left with a black eye.

Mr Allen texted Charlize's mother, Chantelle Johnstone, to let her know what had happened to their daughter.

Ms Johnstone said she had never been so scared in her life and could not stop shaking.

"I got this text saying my little girl had been attacked by a dog. All I could think was, 'Not her face, please not her face'. She's just so little and young. It's so unfair that she's going to have a massive scar for the rest of her life."

Ms Johnstone spent last night at her daughter's bedside - she said Charlize woke up in the middle of the night screaming about a big dog.

"I just feel like I've failed her. I always promised that I'd keep her safe and healthy. But then there were the earthquakes and now she's been attacked by a dog."

Ms Johnstone is now doing everything she can to find the dog's owners and have the animal put down.

"I've got to do something. Every time I'll look at her scar I want to be able to think that the dog that did it was destroyed. I won't be able to sleep otherwise."

She said she hopes anyone with any information about the owners will come forward.