My son, 10, was mauled to death by American XL Bully – sentences given to owners are pathetic and insulting
A MUM whose young son was mauled to death by an American XL Bully has branded the jail sentences handed to the dog’s owners as “pathetic and insulting”.
Jack Lis, was just 10-years-old when he died in November 2021 having been mauled by an 8st dog called Beast.
He tragically died from “severe injuries to the head and neck” after being attacked by the canine as he visited a pal.
Owner Brandon Hayden, 19, fled the scene of the attack.
He was later handed a sentence of four years and six months at a young offender institution, while Amy Salter, 29, who had allowed the dog to stay at her home, was locked up for three years.
Both pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog.
Hayden and Salter were banned from owning a dog indefinitely.
Jack’s mum, Emma Whitfield, from Caerphilly, near Cardiff, told the Mirror: “Those sentences are pathetic and insulating and I know the judge explained at the time that it was the highest he could give, so I’ve got faith that if the guidelines had more movement they would have got longer.
“Let’s hope the Government act on this. From my experience of that day in court, no sentence is ever enough to help with what has happened, but the fact they got so little was insulting.
“Essentially between them – through their own actions – they took a life and they got minimal repercussions for that.”
Emma added that Hayden had got under a year left to serve before being out on licence while Salter could be out by Christmas.
She claimed Salter had already asked twice to come out.
Just six months after her sentence she tried to get her category lowered, then just a few weeks ago she tried to make an appeal to get released early.
Emma said: “It shows no remorse. You’ve taken my son’s life, so just put your head down and serve your sentence.”
Britain is battling an epidemic of vicious maulings, with incidents already hitting a 40-year high.
Last year, there were nearly 22,000 cases of out-of-control dogs which caused an injury in England and Wales, whereas in 2018 there were just more than 16,000.
So far this year, dogs have killed Natasha Johnston, 28, Wayne Stevens, 51, and Jonathan Hogg, 37.
Lawson Bond, two, died in March 2022, after being attacked by a dog in Egdon, Worcestershire,
Bella-Rae Birch, 17 months, was killed by the family dog two weeks later in St Helens, Merseyside.
These were followed by fatal attacks on Daniel Twigg, three, three-month-old Kyra King.
While four-year-old Alice Stones was killed in her back garden in Milton Keynes.
Joanne Robinson, 43, died in July 2022 after being attacked by one of her two Bully XLs at her home in Rotherham, South Yorks.