Dog bite boy needed plastic surgery on his finger

Daniel Smith, six, was bitten by a black and white dog while pushing the leaflet through a letterbox in New Town, Colchester.

His nail was ripped off in the attack and the bite broke his finger.

His mother Alexis Smith, 31, said: “It was really horrible. He was just putting it through the letterbox and the dog got him.

“He screamed, pulled his hand out, went white and screamed more.”

The youngster was taken to accident and emergency at Colchester General Hospital, where doctors referred him to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, for plastic surgery to reconstruct the nail.

Mrs Smith, of Harsnett Road, Colchester, said: “It was a horrendous 24 hours in the hospital.”

The hairdresser and teaching assistant, who had taken Daniel along with her to help deliver leaflets to advertise her business, said she approached the dog’s owner in the days after the incident.

She said: “I felt any owner would want to know if their dog had attacked a small child, but she did not apologise or ask how my son was.

“My son is left traumatised and in a lot of pain, not to mention that the new year is hindered by various trips back to Chelmsford for check-ups and for his dressings to be changed.”

She said she had reported the attack to police, but had so far not heard anything.

The incident follows a similar attack in Rowhedge last month, where a postwoman had the tips of two of her fingers bitten off by a dog while on her rounds.

No further action was taken because it was on private land.

The Communication Workers Union has launched a national campaign – Bite Back – to change the law to protect postal workers and owners.

Mrs Smith added: “Is this really a society where a small child can be bitten by a dog and nothing be done about it?

“He didn’t antagonise it – he just put the flyer through.

“I think owners have a responsibility to put a sign up saying ‘beware of the dog’, or fit a cage on the inside of the letterbox so things like this can’t happen again.”