Klara Tsetkin, a mother who goes by the username Klara Tsetkin on TikTok, has faced criticism on the social media platform for choosing to keep her dog, Bart, despite it biting her three-year-old daughter, Milana, and causing scars that required stitches on her face.
In her defense, Klara argued in a TikTok video that Bart, a cocker spaniel, did bite her child, but she maintained that he did not attack her daughter and instead acted in self-defense. She stated that she did not have Bart taken away or put down, despite the backlash she received.
‘He was very sick!’ she said in one video. ‘And tries to hide under the bed.. his hind legs gave out and he couldn’t crawl away..’
‘(Our) 3 year old daughter did not understand that the dog needs to rest today and not touch him… she began to touch him even more, sit on him and climb into his face and hurt him…’
In another TikTok video, Klara reveals that she and her husband ended up getting a divorce because he wanted to get rid of Bart, the dog that bit their daughter.
The video is captioned, ‘When someone asks me – will you regret that you are divorcing your husband because he wants to get rid of the dog?’
In the video, Klara shares several pictures of her beloved pet and firmly shakes her head in disagreement with the suggestion.
However, many TikTok users were critical of Klara’s decision, with some arguing that her choice to keep the dog meant that Bart was more important to her than her own daughter.
Klara’s daughter, now five and a half years old, was bitten by Bart over three years ago, and Klara shared a series of clips showing how her daughter’s skin has healed since then.
“For those who asked to see how the scar looks now after a dog bite,” Klara said. She added that Milana still has a visible scar on her face due to the way the procedure was done.
Due to a possible infection, the doctor did not tighten the stitches all the way, resulting in a wide scar on Milana’s face, as shared by Klara. Klara mentioned that they were planning to undergo scar resurfacing and had set up a fundraiser page for those who wanted to help their daughter, expressing eternal gratitude.
Meanwhile, some TikTok users argued that those calling for Bart to be removed or euthanized were overreacting to Klara’s decision to keep her pet. They defended Klara’s choice.
According to the CDC, there are 800,000 cases of people seeking medical attention for dog bites in the US every year, with children accounting for half of these cases. Bites are most common among children between the ages of five and nine, and children under the age of four are more likely to be bitten on the head or neck due to their height.