A five-year-old boy was in critical but stable condition Saturday after being mauled by his dad’s two pit bulls in his Brooklyn home.
Jeremiah Rivera’s mom said “he’s OK.”
“Just his face has to get stitches,” said Latoya White, who said she was relieved her son seemed to be doing better.
Michael Pride, an uncle, said Jeremiah was on a ventilator at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens due to extreme swelling.
“You can tell something traumatic happened to his face. His face is swollen four times the size of a normal face. That’s why you can’t tell his eyes are his eyes,” Pride said.
“I couldn’t stay with him too long without becoming really upset. I burst into tears,” the uncle said.
Andrea Mineo, a spokeswoman for Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens, said Jeremiah was in critical, but stable condition. She could not provide details on his treatment.
White said she was away from the family’s home on Riverdale Avenue in East New York at about 6:45 p.m. Friday when the boy was attacked.
The dogs, in the family for less than a year, were normally kept in a cage, Pride said. The boy’s father, Joel Rivera, didn’t let them out, he said.
“Somehow the dogs got out [of the cage] on their own. They wasn’t released from it,” he said.
Referring to Jeremiah’s father, Joel Rivera, who was home at the time, Pride added: “He didn’t let them out.”
Jeremiah, who suffered deep lacerations on his face and neck, “lost two pints of blood,” the uncle said. “ here is a lot of blood on the floor.”
Jeremiah has two siblings, a brother 3, and a sister, 1.
The incident drew the attention of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, which investigates possible child abuse or neglect.
“We are deeply concerned by this troubling news and are investigating along with the NYPD,” a spokesperson told The Post.
The building’s owner, Emlyn Paul, said neighbors had complained Wednesday that the pit bulls were in the hallway.
“Hell no! There weren’t supposed to be any dogs on my property,” Paul said.
Neighbors described the dogs as “vicious.”
“These dogs are ready to attack, tugging away from their owner,” one said.
Another said the dogs were sometimes kept inside a gated driveway next to the building, and last week one got loose, ran into the street and attacked a small poodle on a leash.
“The lady had to snatch the poodle out that dog’s mouth,” the neighbor said.
Both dogs were seized by the city’s Animal Care and Control on Friday night.
In another incident about 11 a.m. Saturday, a 62-year-old man on Randall Avenue in The Bronx was bitten on the arm by his pit bull-mastiff. He was treated at Jacobi Hospital. Cops took the dog to ACC.