Boy left scarred after dog mauled his face

A MUM fought to save her four-year-old child after his face was mauled by a dog as they left their house.

Amy Scanlon, 25, dragged the American pit bull-type dog after it latched on to her son’s Anton’s face outside their home in Roath, Cardiff.

Defenceless Anton was left with a 7cm rip in his left cheek after the vicious attack Amy described as like something from a “horror film”.

She said: “If I wasn’t there Anton would have died.

“I was holding him and I was having a panic attack. I could hardly speak. When I phoned the ambulance I was hysterical.

“I have never seen a dog attack a person like that. I felt like I was in a horror film. I felt broken.”

The injured tot was taken to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital where surgeons operated to fix the nerves in his face.

Now five, he has been left with a scar on his cheek and suffered with nightmares after the traumatising experience in April 2016.

A 43-year-old neighbour, Mark Evans, then of Daviot Street, Roath, was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison at Cardiff Crown Court in June 2016 after pleading guilty to being the owner of a dog which was dangerously out of control and caused injury.

At the trial it was revealed the dog named Rocky had scratched a three-yearold girl on the neck in a previous incident.

A prosecutor described how Anton had been left traumatised.

“He is waking, screaming and is awake for hours after,” he said.

The judge ordered the dog to be humanely destroyed and Evans was banned from keeping dogs indefinitely.

This is the first time a heartbroken Amy has spoken about what happened that day on her doorstep.

She said she knew Rocky from a puppy but never saw him wearing a lead.

She added: “If you ask Anton about what happened he will talk about it but some days he will just come out with ‘Rocky bit me.’

“You have to reassure him he is not coming back, he is gone.

“I don’t feel like we had justice for Anton.”

Amy’s dad Paul Scanlon, 47, who Anton calls Baboo, is now petitioning the government to make it illegal to let dogs off a lead in public.

He said: “I’m a dog owner and I’m quite careful. After the attack I realised the amount of people that walk dogs without leads.

“The law at the moment kicks in after a dog attack but now we need a law to protect before that.

“It’s all on the dog. If a dog attacks that dog is destroyed but is it the dog’s fault or the owner’s?”

Amy and Anton now live in a different part of Cardiff.

Paul said: “If you ask him about his scar he says ‘A dog ate my face.’

“He is such a cheeky, happy little boy, so loving. He just brightens my day.”

He needs 10,000 signatures to get a government response from his petition.