Four-year old boy attacked by Rottweiler

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy needed stitches to his nose, lips and leg after being attacked by a Rottweiler in Larnaca’s Pervolia area on Tuesday evening.

The dog was captured by police and is currently being assessed by veterinary staff to decide whether it poses a danger to the health and safety of the public in which case, according to the law, it will be put down.

The boy, who is of Bulgarian descent, is recovering at home where his condition is described by medical authorities as being out of danger.

The Rottweiler belonged to the owner of a dog-breeding farm in the Old Aqueduct (Kamares) area of Larnaca.  He recently moved house to the Pervolia area and took the dog with him where it was placed in a cage behind a development of tourist apartments.  The attack occurred when the dog escaped through a hole in the cage and approached the next-door neighbours who were just leaving their house.

In Cyprus, once a dog has attacked a person in practice what ordinarily happens is that it is put down.  However, the law in the matter is more detailed and requires that the dog in question be deemed a danger to health and public safety and that vets determine that it has “tendencies to attack”.

“We can’t without conscience, irrespectively and regardless just kill dogs,” said Fanos Pierides of the government’s animal health and safety department, “A dog could be guarding a property, could have been attacked itself and so on.  Circumstances must be examined from all perspectives”.

No final decision has as yet been taken regarding the Rottweiler which attacked the small boy as the state veterinary service is still assessing the case.  Rottweilers are not on the list of dogs deemed dangerous by the state under law 184 (2002) which bans the importation of the pit bull, Japanese Tossa, Fila Brasileiro and Doga Argentino breeds and places restrictions on how they can be kept, owned and appear in public.

Police are currently formulating charges against the dog’s owner in consultation with the Attorney General.

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