Brighton magistrates have ordered the destruction of a rottweiler after it attacked a ten-year-old boy.
The dog’s owner Nicola Payter has a month to appeal.
If she doesn’t appeal – or she appeals and loses – her five-year-old dog Snoop will be put to sleep.
Payter, of Stephens Road, Brighton, was taken to court by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The court was told that two years ago magistrates had ordered that Snoop be castrated and when he was taken outside he should be muzzled.
The ruling followed an earlier incident when Snoop and a bull terrier had attacked and bitten another dog.
But on Friday 4 June Snoop was tied to a washing line in the communal garden outside Payter’s Hollingdean home.
The child asked if he could stroke Payter’s dog and she said yes.
As the child walked away Snoop attacked, biting the boy on the arm.
He was treated for puncture wounds at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
The court ruled that the dog should be killed and Payter banned from keeping a dog for five years.
She was ordered to pay £50 compensation to the boy and £690 to the council to cover kennelling costs.
After the verdict council animal welfare officer Maggi Hollands said: “It’s very sad, but this dog is just too dangerous to be re-homed.”
