The father of a Derry boy who was attacked by a dog on a Donegal beach has urged dog-owners to take more responsibility for their pets.
The attack on seven-year-old Oliver O’Neill happened at Culdaff beach yesterday afternoon.
He suffered cuts to his face, arm and back after being jumped by the dog while he walked along the beach.
The beach was busy at the time, with the majority of sun-worshippers believed to be from the North as Monday was not a bank holiday in the Republic.
Oliver’s father, Ciaran, said his son was distraught after the attack.
“He was already quite frightened of dogs and now this will make him even worse,” said Mr O’Neill.
When Oliver’s parents tried to locate the dog which had attacked their son, they were unsuccessful.
“We walked back along the beach with our son to try and find the dog but he did not see it.
“The people who own the dog may have seen what happened and left the beach.
“There were quite a few other dogs on the beach but my son said that none of these was the one that attacked him.”
Mr O’Neill said that he and other families were annoyed at the number of dogs allowed to run around freely on the beach.
“There were a lot of young children on the beach and a lot of them were clearly frightened of the dogs.
“There is a sign up at the beach saying that dogs must be kept on a leash but a lot of the dog-owners take no notice of this.
“There’s the usual ‘he won’t hurt you’ line that the dog-owners say to anyone that their pet goes near but that is not good enough when you are dealing with children who are afraid of dogs.”
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