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."