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The parents of an 11-year-old who was viciously attacked by a dog have slammed a court's decision not to ban the animal's owner from keeping pets.

Cooper Johnstone had the flesh ripped from his arm when he was bitten by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

He had been knocking on his friend's door in Ormskirk, Lancs, on the first day of the summer holidays last July when he was attacked.

And he has been left permanently disfigured and needing surgery.

Cooper thought he was going to die in the savage attack and has since been plagued by severe panic attacks and a crippling phobia of dogs which have left him unable to sleep and leave the house, meaning he has to be home schooled.

But the animal's owner Sarah Haselton, 36, escaped a ban on keeping animals when she appeared at Preston Magistrates Court to be sentenced on Thursday.

(Image: Kerry Elsworth/Mercury Press)

The NHS worker had plead guilty to being the owner of a dangerously out of control animal, causing injury, at an earlier hearing last month.

She was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and told to pay the family £500 in compensation.

Imposing a sentence, magistrate Martin Sears said: "We have discussed at great length what appears to be a sad and tragic case.

"We do not feel it is necessary to disqualify you from having a dog."

But speaking after the hearing, Cooper's parents Ellis and Karan Johnstone expressed their outrage and 'bitter disappointment' a ban was not imposed.

The couple, who run a party tent hire company together, are now calling for all animal owners to have compulsory pet insurance which can be used to pay for psychiatric help for bite victims.

(Image: Kerry Elsworth/Mercury Press)

Mum Karan, 50, from Ormskirk, said: "Cooper not only has awful scars to live with for the rest of his life but is having a terrible time with panic attacks, to the point where he is housebound.

"He is in a bad way. Every time we try to take him out there is always a dog and no matter if it's on a lead or not, he has a terrible panic attack.

"It's not nice to watch your child having a panic attack while trying to leave the supermarket just because someone has left their dog in the doorway.

"When he has a panic attack he thinks he is going to die, it's just awful.

"If he sees a dog, he either freezes or runs and has run across a road in fear so many times without looking. It's just not fair for him to be going through this.

"We want to raise awareness and campaign for changes to the law regarding dog ownership.

"We think insurance should be made compulsory for all dog owners.

(Image: Kerry Elsworth/Mercury Press)

"This particular owner didn't have any - had she been responsible and had insurance, Cooper wouldn't be suffering so badly as he would have been to access private psychiatrists at an early stage of his recovery and may have overcome a lot of his fears by now.

"The compensation we have been granted in court today is £60 a month, this won't get our son the psychological help he needs."

Cooper's family say he is still on an NHS waiting list for access to a psychologist at Alder Hey children's hospital, eight months after the attack.

The youngster spent two days in hospital recovering from his physical injuries after the attack, which caused puncture wounds to his chest as well as bites to his arm, and needed surgery on his hand and the back of his forearm.

His parents previously shared graphic injuries of their son's wounds to raise awareness.

Dad Ellis, 46, added: "Cooper can't sleep at night, he stays awake for hours and starts crying.

"He used to go out on his bike all day and we'd go fishing or for walks in the woods but now he's stuck in the house all day.

"We are bitterly disappointed the owner was not banned from keeping animals, we couldn't believe it.

"I hope other people learn a lesson from this."