First images released of dog that bit 5 fingers off baby in Port Charlotte

Reporter: Emma Heaton Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:
The puppy that bit a baby’s fingers off. CREDIT: ANIMAL CONTROL

We’re getting a first look of the puppy that chewed the fingers off a baby girl in Port Charlotte.

Meanwhile, there’s no word on how the baby is doing after having five fingers bitten off by a young dog in Port Charlotte back in February.

Chloe Wisniewski, the woman arrested for what happened inside the home, gave a different account.

First, Wisniewski said she was in the bathroom because she felt sick. Then she told investigators she was taking a shower. Regardless, detectives said she left a 3-month-old pit bull mix alone with her baby long enough to do permanent damage.

Charlotte County Animal Control said the puppy, Apollo, went too far after chewing through the young girl’s fingers.

“This particular case is the first one of this nature I’ve seen in my whole career,” Brian Jones, the division manager for Charlotte County Animal Control, said.

Jones has worked 25 years with Charlotte County’s Animal Control, explaining he’s never seen or heard of anything like what happened at the Port Charlotte home.

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Wisniewski told investigators she took in the puppy one night before the attack, which occurred on Valentine’s Day.

Wisniewski said she felt sick and went to take a shower leaving the baby in a bassinet. While she was gone, Apollo chewed the baby’s hands.

“Something terrible happened,” Jones said.

Wisniewski told investigators she walked out to blood everywhere. So much blood, she “couldn’t look” at her babies’ fingers.

First responders took the baby to Port Charlotte’s Shorepoint Hospital. Then the baby was flown out to Tampa General Hospital, where three fingers on the baby’s left hand had to be amputated. While two fingers on the baby’s right hand were partially amputated.

The Sheriff’s Office report said Wisniewski tested positive for THC, and that played a role in her arrest for child neglect.

After the dog cleared its quarantine, the owner did not come to pick it up. When WINK News called the Animal Welfare League, nobody would say if Apollo was still there, has been adopted, or put down.

Florida law does not require an animal to be put down after such incidents.

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