 |
| Tanya Lovegrove with her son Mitchell |
Little Mitchell Brindley was attacked outside a pharmacy, in Southchurch Road, Southend, as he, his mother, Tanya Lovegrove, and her sister Gina, 17, went to catch a bus.
The two adults had passed the dog and its owner without incident, when without warning, the animal lunged at Mitchell and bit him, knocking the tot to the ground and leaving him with blood pouring down his face.
Miss Lovegrove, 22, said: “I went past and Mitchell was just two steps behind me and I heard a growl and it jumped up at him.
“I turned round and my son’s face was in its mouth. The owner pulled the dog back and I just grabbed my son.
“The woman said, ‘oh, I’m sorry I didn’t think he’d do that’ and asked if Mitchell was OK, but I just said, ‘Look at the state of his face’ and walked off to find some help.”
The incident happened at 3.40pm on Tuesday and led to Mitchell being taken to Southend Hospital by ambulance for treatment, where it was found his wounds were not serious.
Miss Lovegrove, of Mill Road, Rochford, said paramedics told her about a similar attack just a day earlier.
She said: “When the ambulance came, they asked what had happened and when we described the dog, the paramedics said it sounded like a dog which bit someone the night before.
“If it is, it could have been biting people all over the place.”
Miss Lovegrove added: “The main reason I am talking about this is to warn other parents, because I would hate for it to happen to another child.
“Mitchell hasn’t got bad injuries, thank God, but he could have been scarred for life.
I can understand a dog getting upset if a child was pulling it about or upsetting it but Mitchell was just walking past, he never touched it.”
The dog is thought to be a large Staffordshire bull terrier type, with brindle markings and a white flash on its chest.
It wore a collar and was on a chain lead.
Its owner was a woman in her late twenties or early thirties, about 5ft 2ins tall with short brown hair. She was wearing a red and blue checked top and jeans.
A police spokeswoman said the force was aware of the incident and officers would be contacting Miss Lovegrove to arrange to take a witness statement.
(Echo News - June 17, 2011)
