United Kingdom: Four-year-old boy's face ripped open in dog attack after he was savaged by 'American pit bull' outside his house

UNITED KINGDOM -- A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy’s face was torn open in a terrifying dog attack outside his front door.

Anton Scanlon was left with a 7cm (almost 3 inch) gash in his cheek by the American pit bull-type beast.

His mum Amy, 25, dragged the animal off her son in scenes she described as being like from a “horror film”.

She told Wales Online: “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.”

Mark Evans, 43, Amy’s neighbor in Cardiff, was sentenced to six month in prison in June 2016 after pleading guilty to being the owner of a dog which was dangerously out of control.

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

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

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 told how she had never seen Rocky with a lead on prompting her dad Paul Scanlon to call for a change in the law.

He wants to see it illegal to let dogs off a lead in public.

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

(The Sun UK - Sept 22, 2017)