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Boy suffers facial scars after dogs attack pony while out riding

Amy Mathieson, H&H news writer

25 April, 2008

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A 12-year-old boy has been left facially scarred after falling from his pony during a dog attack.

Jordan Lye was riding his pony, Poppy, in Langley Park, Buckinghamshire on Sunday 13 April when two dogs started attacking them.

Jordan’s mother, Nicky Barnes, said Jordan had asked the owner to put the dogs on their leads three times prior to the attack, but his requests were ignored.

“She just stood watching them,” said Ms Barnes.

The bull mastiff and American bulldog jumped up at Poppy and bit her, which caused her to bolt. Jordan fell off into a tree — leaving him with cuts to his face.

Ms Barnes said the dogs chased Poppy for a couple of miles, down a main road where she was nearly hit by two cars. She eventually stopped in an industrial estate.

Four-year-old Poppy suffered puncture wounds to the legs, lost a shoe and is now lame.

“It took Jordan four days to go back into the park as he was scared it might happen again. I’m worried it could happen to someone else. Jordan is now facially scarred.”

The police are currently investigating the incident.

After a spate of dog attacks on horses in the past year the British Horse Society (BHS) are calling for victims to contact them (H&H online 25 February).

A spokesman from the BHS said: “We’ve had an excellent response so far. The more reports we get the more we can do.

“We need to have sufficient proof that dogs are causing a problem to both horse and rider before anything can be done, and so by people contacting us we can collate the information and form concrete evidence.”

www.bhs.org.uk


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