Plastic surgeon at Liverpool children's hospital sees dog attacks 'every day'
Video report by ITV Granada Reports journalist Anna Youssef
A plastic surgeon in Liverpool says the hospital where he works treats dog attacks on children every single day.
Dr Christian Duncan, who is a surgeon at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, says he has even dealt with the "near decapitation" of a child who was mauled by a dog at home.
The North West has the highest number of hospital admissions for dog attacks in England, with bite injuries tripling in adults in the last 20 years.
Most recently, the region has seen the death of grandmother Ann Dunn, who was attacked by five American bulldogs at a home on Merseyside.
Two months earlier, three-year-old Daniel Twigg was attacked by a Cane Corso on a family farm in Rochdale.
In March, Bella-Rae Birch, who was 17 months old, was killed by the family's American bully XL at their home in St Helens.
Each death caused by a breed of dog that is not banned in the UK.
Mike and Shirley Anderson lost their 14-year-old daughter Jade Lomas Anderson in 2013 when she was mauled by dogs at a friend's house in Atherton, Wigan.
The couple have campaigned ever since for tighter rules on dogs and ownership, but believe banning breeds is not the answer.
Mike, who is part of football team for grieving dads called Follo FC, said: 'It's being educated what to do, how to filter them into your lifestyle, how to socialise them and how to understand certain traits.
"What tends to happen is when you ban a breed you get a lot of cross breeding and a lot of hybrid breeding and you create another situation out of a banned breed."
Research shows almost as many adults are now being attacked now as children.
Dr John Tulloch a veterinary public health specialist from Liverpool University says 80% of dog bites occur in the home.
He agrees with the Andersons that the Dangerous Dogs Act is not the solution.
"It hasn't helped", he explained. "It's focused on those five or six breeds that are on the list and people think these are the only dogs that could be dangerous.
"Where actually we know that any dog can bite and looking at other countries that have similar legislation none of them have had a positive impact."
The elderly and the very young are most at risk of death and serious injury.
Consultant Christian Duncan, a plastic surgeon at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, says they see a child with dog attack injuries every day.
"'I have dealt with a near decapitation, a child who was attacked by a dog at home", he explained.
"It is often the face that comes into contact, so cheek bites, prominent parts of the face so loss of parts of the nose, lip and parts of the ear.
"Defensive injuries on the hands are the predominant types of injuries that we deal with"
He went on to say: "A lot of the time these are inappropriate dogs, being kept in inappropriate environments by people who are not educated to look after them."
A lot of people think there is no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner, but Dr Carri Westgarth a senior lecturer in animal interaction disagrees.
She says genetics and a tendency towards aggressive behaviour is really important when you are sourcing a dog in the first place.
She believes increased attacks may be down to an increase in dog ownership.
"We need to better understand the body language of dogs", Dr Carri said. "When you observe that dog and you look into the history.
"The dog has been showing signs that he has been worried in that situation and these signs have not been recognised or ignored until the dog has reached that point."
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