A 24-year-old Mooroopna woman pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to being a person in control of a dog that attacked and bit a person causing serious injury and failing to register a dog.
Prosecutor Simon Pogue said a male Staffordshire bull terrier mastiff cross attacked the boy at the woman’s former Mooroopna home on June 9, 2024.
The court heard the boy was face down on a couch in the lounge room, trying to protect his face while the dog was on top of him.
The woman thought the boy was in his father’s room and the dog was outside; however it was on the couch in the lounge room unsupervised, Mr Pogue said.
The boy’s father got the dog off him and the child was taken to Goulburn Valley Health.
He was then taken to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne for plastic surgery to reattach his lip and was discharged two days later.
Mr Pogue told the court the boy now has anxiety, is scared of dogs, doesn’t sleep through the night and is still receiving ongoing treatment.
The dog was impounded on June 12, 2024. It hadn’t been registered for three years.
The woman’s defence solicitor Luke Slater said the “awful incident” took his client by surprise because the dog had spent a lot of time with children over the years.
Mr Slater said the dog was his client’s “biggest emotional support”, as she had owned the dog from when it was young and had gone through significant times with it.
She had been diagnosed with depression before the attack and had since been struggling with her mental health, but had been in counselling, Mr Slater said.
The woman eventually surrendered her dog to the council because she had since moved and no longer had the facilities to keep it.
Magistrate Amina Bhai sentenced the woman to a two-year adjourned undertaking to be of good behaviour.
As part of the undertaking, the woman must not keep an unregistered dog.
Ms Bhai ordered she pay council costs of $10,824.95.
The costs included $9484.95 for shelter and veterinary costs and $1340 for legal costs.
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