UNITED KINGDOM -- A vicious dog which bit a heavily pregnant woman in Bath is to be put down.
Andrew McGauley's Staffordshire Terrier, Bella, leapt at a woman who was 40 weeks pregnant, sinking its jaws into the side of her stomach near her unborn baby.
The victim, Clarissa Stothard, suffered further bites and wounds from the dog's claws and had to be taken to the accident and emergency department at the Royal United Hospital, although her child was unharmed.
Bella was taken into kennels where she was found to be aggressive and when magistrates convicted 50-year-old McGauley, of Woodhouse Road, Twerton, of an offence contrary to the Dangerous Dog Act, they made an order for the dog to be destroyed.
His appeal against the order was dismissed by a judge at Bristol Crown Court last week.
Lawyer Neil Treharne, who was responding to the appeal, said Ms Stothard had suddenly been savaged by the dog as she walked in Woodhouse Road at 1pm on August 5 this year.
"She walked past the dog on the lead and knew the owner. The dog jumped up and bit her on her side. It punctured the skin and she was bleeding.
"She also had a bite to her arm and the side of her body. The owner kept saying sorry."
The court heard that the dog had been taken to kennels where it was found to be "extremely aggressive" on arrival.
Mr Treharne said the animal became more amenable to staff when it settled in, but aggressive when anyone new approached, particularly women.
Jonathan Lewis, for McGauley, said his client had had the three-year-old dog only about a week and had just left his flat when it attacked Ms Stothard, who lived nearby.
He said a muzzle was immediately bought for the dog and its claws were filed down following the incident.
Mr Lewis said McGauley believed the dog had been disorientated at the time.
He called for an order to be made that the dog should be muzzled and on a lead whenever it was let out.
However, dismissing the appeal, Judge Martin Picton said: "It has to be a destruction order."
(This is Bath - Nov 17, 2011)