Young girl having ‘nightmares’ after savage dog attack left her ‘scarred for life’
The family of a four-year-old girl have described how she was ‘scarred for life’ by a dog attack.
Daisy Fagan required stitches to her cheek after a black terrier bit her face while she was playing at a park near her home in Nelson, Lancashire, last month.
Her parents say the incident, which left her with blood ‘squirting’ from her face, has meant she now wakes up every night crying because of nightmares.
Police were unable to seize the dog, as the breed isn’t legally prohibited in the UK, and the animal still lives at a residence nearby.
Daisy’s mum Charlotte Slyfield, 28, believes the law should be changed to allow authorities to take custody of any dog that attacks a person.
She said: ‘The dog has done the same thing as a banned breed, so I can’t see the difference.
‘This little terrier has come along and tried to take her face off. It’s just not good enough, to be honest.’
She went on: ‘There’s no justice for my daughter there. I’ll remember that incident forever and to me, it feels like the dog’s got away with it.
‘She could have permanent scars on her face. Even having to look at her and see her face, it just keeps reminding me of it.’
The incident took place on August 4, when Daisy was out playing with her cousins.
Daisy’s dad Mel Fagan, 49, was looking after the kids as they took turns riding around the park on Daisy’s toy quad bike.
The family were approached by a man out walking a white beagle and black terrier-type dog, which Mel has seen around the neighbourhood and says is usually muzzled.
Daisy in turn approached the man and petted the beagle before turning to the terrier, who Mel claims the owner assured the family it would be ‘fine’ to touch.
Mel then had to quickly grab his daughter after the dog sunk its teeth into her face.
He said: ‘I was about ten feet away from the infants. I had Daisy next to me.
‘Daisy was stroking his little white dog, which she’d stroked before. The other dog was at the back of his feet. I looked down, and I realised it hadn’t got a muzzle on it.
‘I said “is that going to be alright with little Daisy? It’s not gone its muzzle on.” He said “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine”.
‘As soon as he said that she bent down to stroke it, and it just grabbed her by the face. When I picked her up, the blood was squirting out of her face.’
Daisy subsequently required three trips to hospital for surgery on her wounds and a course of antibiotics.
Mum Charlotte says she was furious to discover police had only issued the dog’s owner with a caution.
She says she’s since put posters up around the neighbourhood to warn others about the animal, but that these have been torn down.
She said: ‘I’m disgusted. If that was my dog, I would have been apologetic. I wouldn’t have cared if the parents had sworn and shouted at me. I would have been devastated.’
Dad Mel went further, saying that if it was his pet, he would have had it ‘put to sleep.’
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