Puppy In La Habra Heights Lucky To Be Alive After Being Stung 155 Times By Africanized Bees

LA HABRA HEIGHTS (CBSLA.com)  —  A 7-month-old puppy in La Habra Heights is lucky to be alive.

Elli's recovering from a serious bee attack -- she was stung dozens of times Friday.

Her owners live in the 2100 block of West Road.  They didn't know their neighbor was a bee keeper.

KCAL9's Erica Nochlin said the puppy was stung at least 155 times -- likely by a swarm of Africanized bees.

"There was just hundreds and hundreds of them," said Chad, "just swarming around."

Chad  said he tried to rescue Elli but he was overcome by the bees, too.

"They just keep attacking and attacking, even when I was down the street," Chad said.

Finally, a neighbor used a make-shift beekeeping suit to get Elli out of danger.

"It was just very sad," said Chad.

They rushed Elli to the pet hospital where the vet said she took out 155 stingers.

"What they said was that her kidneys started to fail, and they stung her -- as you see --   in  eyes and her eyes were pretty much swollen shut," said Chad.

"Had there been little kids back there, it could have been much worse, I mean we love her like a member of the family," said Michael Schiotis, Elli's owner and Chad's step-father.

They believe the bees came from a beehive a couple of doors down.

They said they didn't know the beehive existed until the attack happened.

The family said they wished they had some kind of warning. Nochlin knocked on the door of the beekeper's home but got no response.

Another local beekeper told Nochlin it's hard to tell where the bees came from .

He said with the number of sting, they were most likely Africanized honey bees -- extremely defensive and aggressive and sometimes they have nests in the ground.

It's illegal to own Africanized bees in La Habra Heights. Either way, Elli's family hopes some good will happen from her experience.

"To prevent it from happening again, to us or anybody else," said Schiotis.

"I'm happy that she's out [of the hospital] alive," said Chad, "she's doing better and doing well. That's all I care about."