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Rachel Smith & Chloe Burrell

Dog banned from pub after biting young child on shoulder

A dog has been banned from a pub after biting a child who tried to pat it.

Sandy, a Jack Russell, was asleep on the floor when the 'energetic' young girl grabbed the creature with both hands.

However Sandy, who Preston Crown Court heard 'doesn't particularly like children', bit the child on her shoulder in the Fieldens Arms, Blackburn, drawing blood.

Lancs Live reports the youngster's mum took her to the pub toilets to clean her wound. The child did not require any further treatment.

Owner of the pub, landlady Beverley Holgate-Johnson, 64, claimed the dog had been alarmed by the girl who was a regular at the pub with her family.

However she accepted the risk the ageing dog would react badly to a child could or should have been foreseen, and pleaded guilty to having a dog which was dangerously out of control in a public place.

Since the incident the girl's mum said her daughter has developed a fear of dogs - particularly those which look like Sandy.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham said: "No-one saw the incident but it would seem the child startled one of the defendant's dogs, who bit her on the right shoulder. It would seem in the course of this the child ran over to the dog and grabbed her back with both hands.

"She was left with an unpleasant injury. There was blood drawn but thankfully did not require significant treatment.

"The dog, a 15-year-old Jack Russell called Sandy, has no history of aggression. This defendant accepts by her plea that this was a situation which should have been foreseen as having some sort of risk.

"Sandy didn't particularly like children but would usually respond by moving away."

The judge considered whether a destruction order was necessary to protect the public from any risk posed by Sandy.

However he said Holgate-Johnson has kept dogs for many years without incident and in the circumstances it would be enough to ban Sandy from the public areas of the Fielden's Arms when there were customers present.

Judge Altham also fined the landlady £135 and ordered her to pay £85 prosecution costs.

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