The mother of Jack Lis, a boy of 10 killed by a dog, will today appeal to the Prime Minister to back a Mirror campaign for new laws to prevent deadly maulings.
Emma Whitfield will urge MPs to bring in the Jack Lis Law following the deaths of 16 people in 18 months.
In her video message, Emma says: "First of all, I just want to apologise for not being here in person. I’d also like to thank those that have helped me to still be a part of this event.
A bit of background to who I am. Some of you may know of me, some of you may never have heard of me. My name is Emma, and in November of 2021, I lost my son Jack Lis. He was killed in a dog attack by a large XL Bully.
It was just a normal day. I did the school run and picked him and my youngest son up as I did every day. Within 10 minutes of being home, he grabbed his skateboard and asked to go out to play, just as kids do. The thing is - he didn’t get the chance to come home.
I remember that a lady knocked my door and told me that Jack had been attacked by a dog, so I jumped in my car and rushed to where he was, which was his friend’s house just around the corner. The police hadn’t arrived yet.
There were people banging on the windows to try and distract the dog while others were on the phone to 999. I was begging people to tell me what was happening – no one would. Emergency services arrived and shouted for everyone to get indoors while they opened the front door to the house. The only place I could go was back in my car.
I watched as they pulled Jack out of the house and fought the dog back at the same time. I saw everything. I remember that there was so much confusion around whose house it was too. People thought it was my house and my dog. I was ushered into a kind stranger’s house where I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity.
As you can imagine, identifying Jack by being shown his shoe was heart-breaking. Being told he didn’t make it was unimaginable.
My initial reaction was that there needed to be a ban of the breed. Get rid of every single one of them. This made the most sense for me as they have been responsible for a lot of attacks and, in hindsight, would have prevented what happened to my son if the dogs didn’t exist in the first place. I felt that these large dangerous dogs shouldn’t be kept, especially by people who clearly don’t know how to look after them.
Two people were convicted, and the day they were sentenced, the court was postponed as they needed to show me the CCTV footage. It was shocking to see that on several occasions outside the local shop, the dog was jumping at people who walked by, could be seen tracking children, barking at them, lunging at them, and had even bitten someone.
However, the main owner had responded to these incidents by repeatedly kicking and punching the dog, many times, in the head. The other praised and rewarded the dog. I thought “is it any wonder that a dog would behave aggressively if this is how it’s been treated?”.
This won’t bring my son back, but I realise it’s not as simple as banning certain dogs. There will always be another breed involved. I realised that this is a much bigger issue than I first thought, and it goes a lot deeper than I imagined.
More recently, I have been part of the launch of a campaign with a national newspaper to raise awareness on this issue. I was also invited to Parliament by my MP, Wayne David, to speak to other MPs, and Lords. I admit, I was absolutely petrified to say the least!
I haven’t been to London since I was fifteen, and the last time I went, I was being quite the tourist. The idea of getting the train to Westminster, to speak to politicians, was crazy for someone like me from my small community in Caerphilly.
Once I was in Parliament, it wasn’t so scary after all. The MPs I spoke to were all interested in what I had to say and agreed that dog legislation isn’t fit for purpose. A good number attended the drop-in session, and I even had the privilege of a personal meeting with the Shadow Home Secretary.
I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to be on prime-time national news with ITV, or on Politics Live right before PMQs. Wayne dropped me in the deep end with that one! But, I was very pleased that so many people heard the things I had to say.
Even my friend from back home was sat scrolling on her phone, enjoying her lunch, when she looked up to see me on the TV. It’s safe to say I was clueless to the things planned for me throughout the day - my autopilot definitely helped me out! But, I was really glad to do what I did.
I think that it’s extremely important for people to hear my story and to understand that there needs to be change.
The first thing I think needs to be looked at is the Dangerous Dogs Act.
It’s commonly accepted by politicians that it does not work, and this is also the view of the animal charities.
It doesn’t protect people. I feel that it is far more reactive rather than preventative. The dog which killed Jack, in the eyes of the law, was only dangerous once it had killed him.
This dog was not a banned breed, and neither are many of the dogs involved in fatal or non-fatal incidents. Adding to the list of banned dogs is not going to achieve anything because of crossbreeding, and also because the list would go on and on and on whenever there is an attack. We need a different approach.
There also needs to be far more regulation of dog breeding and proper enforcement of the rules that exist already. Breeders in Wales, where I live, only need a licence when they have three or more breeding bitches that produce three or more litters per year.
This leaves gaps allowing for some breeders to avoid welfare checks and enforcement of the rules. We also know that illicit breeders will exploit this by breeding dogs simply for the money irrespective of the consequences.
Many will not show any care for the welfare or behaviour of these animals.
You hear stories all the time of these dogs then being sold to families with young children, and these families hardly know the temperament of the dog they are buying.
I want to assure people that what I say is not out to get all breeders or owners, but I do really believe that there needs to be more regulation throughout.
Dogs can also be bought anywhere, with adverts often going out on social media. A quick search for bully’s on Instagram shows hundreds of pages advertising dogs looking a certain why. How this is allowed to happen is beyond me?
The dog that killed Jack was given away, for free, on a Facebook group, and was even advertised as being aggressive. The local council are unlikely to see this, the police have no grounds to investigate this, and social media bosses are happy to leave this unregulated. These are areas where the Government needs to step in.
Finally, there is no way to guarantee that someone will responsibly train their dog. For me, and hopefully everyone in this room, training a dog appropriately and effectively is just common sense.
I would hope that more work is done by the government to educate owners as well as children in schools. In my case, the people responsible for what happened should have known better than to leave a dog, that had consistently shown aggressive behaviour, roaming free around a house where children were present.
I’m no expert, but I firmly believe Jack’s death could have been avoided if the owners were more responsible people, and if that dog was kept separately.
Everything I’m doing, I’m doing for Jack, and to stop another Jack from happening. I want to make sure that nobody else is ever put in the position of me and my family.
I know I can’t change what has happened, but there are people who have the power to change the future. I am speaking here today to try and be a part of that change."
