WHAS11 coverage

(WHAS11) - A teenager is out of the hospital, but still recovering after being mauled by a pit bull in Fairdale last weekend.  The couple who stopped to help are being called “heroes” by neighbors. 

Charles and Karen Barr were driving home from a family's house when they saw the young girl in the front yard wrestling the dog. Karen is a nurse and Charles had a gun.

"All it would've [taken] was a second for him to grab her by the throat and we wouldn't have been able to get him off her," says Charles, who says he grabbed his gun and shot the pit bull he saw attacking the 15-year-old girl.

"I could see her legs.  Her legs were mangled,” says Charles.  “From both ankles up to her hips were just bites and gashes."

"She had blue jeans on and they looked like shorts... they had been shredded," says Karen.

A police report says the dog attacked the girl in the house where she was visiting a friend, and chased her into the front yard.  Meanwhile, neighbors say the owners stayed inside the house.

Animal Control says those owners are now facing fines and jail time.  They say in March, they responded three times to complaints about the same dog running loose in the neighborhood.

"Could it have been prevented?  You know, we left notice that we had been there and the owner never responded,” says Jackie Gulbe, a spokeswoman for Metro Animal Services.  “So could the owner have prevented this?  Yeah."

In Jefferson County, 28 dogs were declared potentially dangerous last year -- that means they have bitten or attacked a human or another animal.  In the last year, there have been 879 reported bite cases.

And while animal control doesn’t recommend shooting the animal, they agree it could have saved this girl's life and maybe others.

“You can argue if it’s the right thing to do, but did it resolve the situation?  Yeah,” says Gulbe.  “From a safety factor for them, it was probably the safest thing they could have done.”

"The neighbors are pretty much calling me a hero,” says Charles.  “But I've got young children her age.  She was helpless.  You had to do something to stop the dog."

An ordinance passed last year gives Metro Animal Services more reign in punishment of cases of potentially dangerous dogs.  The owners have been fined $150.  Animal control will pursue criminal charges in court and that could mean up to a $500 fine and/or up to a year in jail.  The girl's family has hired an attorney and they also plan to press charges.