Too Close To Home...

An eyewitness described seeing a child of no more than seven or eight years old being savaged by a pit bull in Ilchester Road, Dagenham, on Tuesday, November 19.

The man, who asked not to be named, said neighbours rushed out of their homes after hearing the youngster's screams, before trying to beat the beast off him.

He said: "I've never seen anything like it in my life. I saw people running. Someone said there was a dog attacking a child. I saw a child on the ground and the pit bull on top of him.

"It was horrible. It was too much. The child was crying, screaming. It was bad I'm telling you. The dog was mad."

I know Ilchester Road, it's not far from my mother's house, and I've probably driven down it a few time when taking one of her friends home from a visit.

According to the witness, another man came and tied a lead around the animal's neck with police later taking it away.

Why wasn't it shot then and there at the scene? We should adopt the US method of dealing with these things. And tell the bloody useless CPS that that's not going to give them an excuse not to do their job.

A spokesman for the Met Police said officers were called at 3.24pm to reports of a dangerous dog.

Paramedics treated the boy in the street before taking him to hospital.

"His condition has been assessed as not life-threatening, but life-changing," the Met spokesman said before adding that the dog has not been destroyed.

A man, woman and teenage boy were all arrested on suspicion of having a dog dangerously out of control and of having a prohibited dog out in public. They were taken into custody and later released, though they are still under investigation.

Now it sits in kennels, wolfing down taxpayer-funded Pedigree Chum until the justice system can get it's arse in gear. How many more of these cases do we need?