Exclusive: NJ boy speaks out after losing his ear in pit bull attack

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- An 8-year-old boy is speaking out after surviving a vicious attack by a pit bull on the loose in Jersey City.

The dog mauled the boy so severely, it bit off the child's ear.

Despite spending the last week in the hospital with several surgeries, bandages, and stitches, Quynton Curry's contagious smile makes you almost forget what he's had to endure.

"He started attacking me off the leash," Quynton said. "The dog got loose and attacked me again, and the lady got him off, and then I came to my mom."

Quynton was playing with friends in the backyard of an Ocean Avenue home when a neighbor's pit bull escaped and sprinted straight toward him. The dog latched onto his ear, legs, and arm before it was finally pulled off by its owner.

"It bit me in my ear, and it bit me in my thigh, and my leg, and my arm," Quynton said.

"I looked down and realized his ear was missing and he's like covered in blood, so now I'm panicking, I'm crying, he's screaming," said Allison Rodriguez, the victim's mother.

Since the traumatic incident, Quynton has been receiving treatment at St. Barnabas Medical Center, but his mother says their insurance won't be able to cover all his bills.

He still may need a prosthetic ear, but his strength and resilience throughout this ordeal continues to inspire.

"When I was at the doctors, my teachers came and some of my friends, a lot of my friends wrote notes to me," Quynton said.

"The outpouring, it's amazing," Rodriguez said.

In the meantime, Quynton's family has set up a GoFundMe page and plans to have a fundraiser at their Jersey City home Saturday.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child, and my village is strong because they really came through for us, for my baby, and I told him, I said, 'The world loves you,'" Rodriguez said.

After the attack, the owner of the pit bull voluntarily put the dog down.