Girl, seven, left scarred for life after suffering horrific facial injuries in Akita dog attack in Boston

A seven-year-old girl suffered horrific facial injuries after she was attacked by an Akita dog outside a Boston pub.
Kiera after the attackKiera after the attack
Kiera after the attack

Kiera Young has been left scarred for life by the attack, which happened as she went to stroke the dog.

Her grandmother and legal guardian, Sharon Young, says she has now been told that the police are not taking any further action over the incident.

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Kiera, who is autistic, was left so traumatised that the family has had to rehome a Labrador pup they got for her last year as she is terrified of any dog.

Kiera before the attackKiera before the attack
Kiera before the attack

Sharon, who lives in Nottingham with Kiera, said they had been visiting family in Boston and had gone for a drink in the Witham Tavern at the end of February.

Kiera had gone in the car with Sharon’s sister while Sharon walked with other family members, and the attack happened before Sharon got there.

Sharon said Kiera had approached a couple with the dog outside the pub, and had been told it was fine to stroke, so had petted it. The couple went in and then came out again, and Sharon said Kiera went back and again was told it was fine, but when she stroked it a second time, it attacked her face.

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“The owners pulled it back and that caused the gum to pull away from her lip,” said Sharon. "I could hear her screaming from the other side of the river and just ran to her. When I got there, I just wanted to get her to hospital. My nephew took her to the Pilgrim in his car rather than wait for the ambulance.” She said the injuries were cleaned up at Pilgrim, and she went to Lincoln Hospital the next day for facial surgery to the wounds, including one under her chin which just missed her throat.

“The police asked if I wanted to press charges, and I said yes, but they’ve come back to me in the last week and a half and said they are not pressing charges because the dog has showed no form of aggression before,” said Sharon.

“How many times does it have to do something like this before you can do anything?”

She understands through the local grapevine the dog may have been put down, but has not had that confirmed either by the owners or the police.

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“Someone advised me to approach a no win no fee lawyer, but I don’t want that, I just want some form of apology or concern, or recognition of what’s happened,” Sharon said.

“We recently went to Ingoldmells for the day and she saw the same breed of dog and she started screaming ‘I thought it was dead, I thought it was dead’. It’s a nightmare when you take her out now.”

Lincolnshire Police were approached by the Boston Standard for a comment, but had not responded at time of going to press.

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