A CORONER yesterday said he wanted to see stricter laws controlling the breeding and distribution of dangerous dogs after a 13-month-old boy was mauled to death by his grandparents' rottweiler.
Archie-Lee Hirst was being cared for by his 16-year-old aunt at his maternal grandparents' house in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, when the dog launched the attack.
Speaking after the inquest at Wakefield Coroner's Court yesterday, Archie-Lee's paternal grandfather Andrew Williamson echoed coroner David Hinchliff's call for more stringent laws and said he wanted legislation to demand all dogs are kept muzzled.
At the time of the attack, Archie-Lee was being looked after by his teenage aunt, who was also babysitting her two sisters, aged six and seven.
Archie-Lee was being carried by the seven-year-old when the female dog snatched the child out of her arms.
His aunt failed to save him from the two-and-a-half-year-old rottweiler's jaws, despite striking and kicking the dog, and he died later in hospital from multiple injuries.
The inquest was told the dog did not have enough mental stimulation in the yard where she was kept and had not been walked for five months.
Witness Mike Mullen, a canine consultant, said the rottweiler would, therefore, have over-reacted to any form of stimulation and would have seen Archie-Lee as an object being presented to her by the seven-year-old.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Hinchliff said: "I would like to see if the law can become such that there are stricter controls, particularly with dangerous dogs, so that their breeding and distribution can be controlled more stringently."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article