The dog that attacked Kevin on the beach is registered with the Swedish Agency for Agriculture as an American Staffordshire terrier, Amstaff. There is a dog ban on the beach, but despite that, the owner let the dog play in the water, when it suddenly targeted Kevin. – My mother and I were playing football, then the dog ran over and I shouted to my mother. I stood still, but mother grabbed me and ran away, but then the dog bit me, says Kevin. The dog became more aggressive Kevin’s mother Sonja Svensson tells Kalla facts that it all happened very quickly. -– I try to hit the dog and put it away and at the same time scream for help. It’s like it gets more aggressive the more you hit it. I was so afraid it wanted to eat his face, because that was the feeling you got. So I put my hand on his face and turned my face away. The dog bit his head. Kevin suffered severe bite injuries. – The dog took a big bite. It was like he got what he wanted and then he left, says Sonja. – I only saw blood all over me, says Kevin. Not the first time the dog has bitten Sonja, she has reported the incident to the police and it has turned out that the same dog bit a security guard a month earlier without any measures being taken. “The punishment is nothing” Cold facts’ review (blue link) has shown that despite repeated dog attacks on people recently, many breeders of fighting dog breeds highlight precisely the will to fight as a selling point. More than half of the breeders who were contacted in the review were also prepared to sell to someone completely unaccustomed to dogs – in order to have the dog as protection. Although it is unclear what dog habit the owner in Kevin’s case had, or why the dog attacked, Sonja reacts strongly to what Kalla fakta’s review shows. – It is not OK. Anyone should not be able to buy such dogs. There should even be a law on that actually, says Sonja Svensson. The owner was fined a day Kevin’s case went to trial. The owner, a young woman, was convicted of causing bodily harm, which also included breaching the Public Order Act because they were staying on a beach where dogs are prohibited. The penalty was a 60-day fine. She was allowed to keep the dog with an order from the county board that it must be leashed and muzzled when it is around people. – I think the punishment she received is equal to zero, so really. It is nothing. That’s where I think it’s really hard. Then it feels more like our children’s lives are not worth more than that, says Sonja. Kevin has nightmares Kevin has been operated on nine times after the dog attack. He still suffers from headaches and is afraid of dogs. – Sometimes I have nightmares about it. That’s when I kind of don’t even dare to sleep and that’s when I kind of stay up all night, says Kevin.
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