‘Fearless’ Lawson Bond, 2, mauled to death by grandmother’s Rottweiler when he opened gate
A TODDLER was mauled to death by a Rottweiler belonging to his unlicensed dog breeder gran, an inquest heard.
Lawson Bond, two, was attacked by the animal near the cottage where he lived with his family in Egdon, Worcestershire.
His gran Maria Bond was an unlicensed dog breeder, who kept eight adult dogs at the property and had bred and sold puppies for around 30 years.
On the morning of March 8 last year, she went inside to use the toilet and let three of the animals into an adjoining field for exercise.
When she returned, she found the gate open and stricken Lawson lying face down on the ground.
Maria told the inquest: “At first I thought ‘that little bugger has gone into the field’, so I shouted his name and I went up to get him back in.
“He was laying face down and I couldn’t see any of the dogs. I panicked, I grabbed him, picked him up and screamed.
“I ran through the gate and put him down on the lawn – I didn’t know what to do. I called 999 but I was hysterical.”
The gran’s screams alerted Lawson’s dad Reiss Bond, who was inside washing up at the time.
He put his son in a van and began driving to Worcestershire Royal Hospital but had to stop to carry out CPR being paramedics met him.
Lawson underwent emergency surgery before being transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s paediatrics intensive care unit.
Tragically, he was in cardiac arrest for 30 minutes, which caused his brain to swell.
Lawson clung on until March 30 but sadly his condition worsened and died that morning.
A post mortem found he had suffered serious injuries to his head, chest and neck.
His cause of death was given as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage, and laceration to the left internal carotid artery as a result of dog mauling.
Meanwhile, police seized the three female dogs – including one that had blood on its face – from the property.
They were later put down, the inquest in Worcestershire was told.
Ruling a verdict of misadventure, Senior Coroner David Reid said Maria being unlicensed did not contribute to her grandson’s death.
He said: “All three dogs were said to be calm and well behaved. There is no evidence that provides any connection between Mrs Bond being unlicensed and Lawson’s death and there is no evidence that the way they were looked after contributed to his death.
“The impression that their vet had was that they were healthy with no signs of negligence.
“There are two possibilities, one being that Lawson opened the gate, or that Mrs Bond left the gate unsecured when she went inside to use the toilet.
“Her clear recollection was that she secured the gate and I have no reason to doubt that. It seems that Lawson did manage to climb the gate and lift the chain over the gate post.”
Paying tribute to his son following the inquest, Reiss said Lawson was an “energetic” child and “nothing would faze him”.
He added: “He couldn’t wait to get up in the morning. Everything I did, he wanted to do as well.
“He was fearless and would want to be out and doing what I was doing, whether that was cleaning the kennels or hoovering.
“The three dogs, they used to sit there and lick his face. He did have contact with all the dogs but I would never, ever leave him alone with them, not that I ever had that worry about them.”