Young boy mauled by dog at Perth park: 'Like a murder scene'
A Perth mum is warning others 'you can never be too careful' after her son was left with horrific facial injuries from a trip to the local park.
A young boy has undergone emergency facial surgery after being viciously attacked by a dog in a Perth park, with the owner allegedly fleeing the scene.
Carter Bungard, 7, was at Charlottes Vineyard Oval in Ellenbrook playing rugby with his dad at about 6.30pm on Tuesday when the scary incident suddenly unfolded.
A bullmastiff dog was at the park on a leash when the owner asked Carter if he wanted to pat the dog.
However, the dog suddenly lunged at him, according to his mum Pryncess Adamson.
"It looked like a murder scene," she told 9News, explaining that her boy suffered severe facial injuries including a fractured nose, as well as chest lacerations.
"We're not talking just your normal puncture, there [are] scratches all the way through his whole face," Ms Adamson said.
" It looked like a murder scene as such, we got to the hospital and it was just everywhere, indescribable. Every parent's worst nightmare."
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Ms Adamson has warned others "you can never be too careful", and says she worries of the long term psychological impact on her son.
"I've taught my kids to always ask before you pat and they just love animals," she told the publication. "Now he's said to me a couple of times, 'I don't want to go near dogs again, I don't like dogs anymore'."
The parents are asking the owner to come forward, after they allegedly ran from the scene after the attack.
In Western Australia, under the 1976 Dog Act, a person responsible for a dog can be fined $10,000 in the case of an attack, and up to $20,000 if the animal is considered a dangerous dog.
The bullmastiff is not one of the six restricted breeds of dog listed on the government's fact sheet about dangerous dogs.
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