Girl bitten in face by dog after second attack in week

A TEN-YEAR-OLD girl has been taken to hospital after she was bitten by a dog, in the second attack of its kind this week in Scotland.

A Japanese akita dog bit Toni Clannachan's face while she was playing in a school friend's garden.

The ten-year-old was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, where she remained in a stable condition last night

Toni's father, James Dixon,said: "These dogs shouldn't be with families or around kids. They are killing machines."

Speaking about the injuries to his daughter's face, he said: "If the dog had bit her an inch or so lower it would have severed an artery in her neck and I really think she would be dead."

Reports claimed Toni needed more than 100 stitches for the injury from the attack.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said last night: "At 4:40pm on August 31 a ten-year-old female sustained facial injuries when she was bitten by a Japanese akita dog in the Kilmarnock area. She was conveyed to Crosshouse Hospital for treatment and is detained in a stable condition."

Though they make good guard dogs, akita's are not known as being naturally aggressive towards humans.

On Sunday Rhianna Kidd, also aged ten, was mauled by two rottweilers while riding her bicycle to her grandmothers home in Dundee. She was treated for a fractured jaw and has had to have plastic surgery. The dogs were put down earlier this week.

A 33-year-old woman was charged in connection with the attack under the Dangerous Dogs Act, Tayside Police said.

The act was introduced in 1991 after a spate of attacks, including the fatal mauling of 11-year-old Kellie Lynch, from Dundee, who was killed by two Rottweilers while on holiday in Dunoon in 1989. Anyone convicted of an offence under the Act faces up to two years in prison and a 5,000 fine.