Parents urge MSPS to make it illegal for dogs to be off leads in public

● Law unchanged in 30 years says mother of girl killed by Rottweilers

Mothers whose children have been attacked by dogs have called for it to be made illegal for pets to be off the lead in public.

One of the parents, whose daughter was killed in an attack by two Rottweilers in Dunoon in 1989, said “nothing has changed” in law 30 years on from her death.

The parents were giving evidence to Holyrood’s public audit and post-legislative scrutiny committee yesterday.

Veronica Lynch described how her daughter Kelly was “decapitated” by two “massive” Rottweilers.

Ms Lynch said: “When Kelly died, the laws were ineffective. Nothinghappenedtoanybody.

“The owner stupidly allowed his daughter and my daughter to take two massive Rottweilers out. Their combined weight was something like 19 stone and Kelly weighed fourand-a-half stone. She didn’t stand a chance.”

She added: “Thirty years on from Kelly’s death we are still reading the same headlines. Nothing has changed and we have to get something done.”

Lisa Grady’s daughter was mauled by two Rottweilers while riding her bike outside the family home.

The ten-year-old had bite marks all over her body, suffered a broken jaw and was left with one ear “hanging off ” following the attack.

Ms Grady echoed calls for all dogs to be on leads. She also suggested introducing ownership controls after it was revealed the owner of the dogs who attacked her daugh- ter had another Rottweiler “within weeks”.

Meanwhile, Claire Booth told the committee that a pair of English Bull Terriers bit her six-year-old son’s ear off during an attack in 2015 where he was “rag-dolled all over the ground”.

She said her son had been left traumatised by the attack.

He has had multiple operations to try and repair his wounds, but needs further surgery to reconstruct his disfigured ear.

“It all happened very quickly,” she said. “It was carnage at the scene.

“I noticed right away that his ear was off the side of his head and a chunk was missing and it was hanging off.

“I was screaming hysterically and the owner was in the background unaware of what was going on, shouting out, ‘Don’t worry, the dogs won’t touch you’.”

After the attack, Ms Booth

0 Veronica Lynch spoke of her daughter’s death to MSPS

said she felt let down and “frustrated” by the response of the police and dog wardens.

“Police Scotland told us they didn’t have any control over dog attacks,” she said.

Ms Booth said that dog wardens came to visit the family,

but a week later “they phoned to ask if they’d left the statement in our house because they couldn’t find it”.

She added: “That whole process was farcical.”