A RENFREWSHIRE mum whose son is permanently disfigured has called for pets being off their lead in public to be made illegal.

Claire Booth, a mother-of three from Bishopton, has described an attack on her son Ryan by two dogs when he was six years old.

The revelation comes as it emerged an estimated 5,000 people have been treated at Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital after being injured by dogs, one-fifth of whom were children.

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Ms Booth was giving evidence to the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee at Holyrood.

Ms Booth was with her son, collecting chestnuts in a local park, when a white English bull terrier knocked him to the ground and attacked him.

Another bull terrier then joined the attack, she explained.

"It was carnage at the scene," Ms Booth told the committee.

"They covered his whole body and when I got to him his ear was hanging off.

"The owner was shouting 'don't worry, the dogs won't touch you' as I screamed for help."

Ryan is permanently disfigured and has to go through three more surgeries.

He cannot enter a park and Ms Booth said he had lost his childhood.

She felt the police were powerless to help them.

She said: "I was very frustrated with the police."

"The whole process was a bit farcical to be honest."

The owner was prosecuted and got the maximum community service and one dog was destroyed, but the other was given a control order which was never followed up.

Ms Booth supports a law seeing dogs kept on leads in all places.

Ms Booth was one of three mothers speaking in parliament who are campaigning for a change to the law.

She was joined by Veronica Lynch, whose daughter Kelly died 30 years ago, and Lisa Grady, who says her 10-year-old daughter was left with bite marks all over her body after being attacked by two Rottweilers.

Hospital admissions related to dog bites have doubled in the last 10 years, according to plastic surgeon Dr Judy Evans, who warned that child victims are left with “much-worse scarring” than adults.

Holyrood’s Post-Legislative and Public Scrutiny committee will now consider the evidence and decide what recommendations to make to the Scottish Government, including possible changes to the law.

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After hearing evidence from the three mothers, Anas Sarwar MSP said: “The reality is that there’s some people that the state deems are not fit enough to be parents and their children are taken away from them, whereas where is the control around whether someone is fit to be a dog owner?

“Clearly, there are people who should not be anywhere near children and there are people who should be nowhere near any kind of pet or dog.”