'They're animals and unpredictable': Father of girl, 13, mauled by dog in horror attack calls for mandatory pet insurance

14 April 2025, 12:28

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The father of a 13-year-old girl who was mauled in a horror dog attack has called for mandatory pet insurance.

Alex O'Byrne's daughter, Lilly, was just 11 when she was attacked by a neighbour's dog on September 10, 2023.

She had been waiting outside a friend's house when the Staffordshire Bull Terrier and German Shepherd cross escaped and lashed out at her.

Her father, Alex, rushed outside after hearing her piercing screams down the street - but the attack was so quick that by the time he reached her she was already walking away with blood over her face.

"She had a big gouge in her cheek that went through her face, a big mark just above her eye and then about 13 puncture wounds in her hand where she pulled the dog off," Alex told LBC.

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Alex praised his "resilient" daughter for the way she dealt with the attack as well as the recovery process over the past 18 months.

"She's exceptionally resilient and she's coping well, but obviously she was terrified and even now she's still jumpy around dogs," he said.

"She doesn't know if they growl or bark unexpectedly. She's still very nervous whereas beforehand she was always comfortable around dogs."

She was even nervous around her own family dog following the attack.

"Our dog couldn't even sneeze or get up and scratch quickly without her bursting into tears," her father said.

Despite her struggling emotionally after the attack, Lilly was unable to get therapy on the NHS due to the length of waiting lists.

The family were instead left to keep an eye on her at home, with her writing a diary for the first year to help process everything that happened.

It was a difficult time, but Lilly was able to find solace in football, Alex explained.

"It takes her mind off it and it gives us all something to look forward to instead of dwelling on what happened."

Now, he has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds towards Lilly's recovery, including private therapy and surgery if she decides she wants it later down the line.

"If she's going to an event where all of her friends get dressed up, you'll see her look in the mirror and spend far too much time trying to make her scar go away," Alex said.

"At the moment, she's trying to use the scar cream to make it go.

"The advice of the plastic surgeon, not long after the actual surgery she had originally to fix it, is that as she grows up, she might want to get it cleaned up to make it more of a thin line scar as opposed to quite a wide scar."

Moving forward, Alex believes mandatory pet insurance should be introduced so similar incidents don't happen again.

"There's a gap in support when it's not an intentional attack and there's no insurance," Alex explained. "There's nothing.

"If it was an intentional attack, then the police have a scheme where they provide compensation to the victim or if the owner of the dog is insured or even has house insurance of any form then the insurance covers the victim.

"But if it's not intentional and there's no insurance there's just a big hole where any support structure should be.

"I'd like to see mandatory pet insurance and I'm not talking expensive pet insurance... I mean similar to third-party car insurance where it's a token value just to cover victims on protection tax."

Alex said he had already experienced some resistance to the idea, with people saying "my dog's never done anything - why should I have to be punished with insurance?"

"The slight irony is that's exactly what was coming out of the mouth of the woman who owned the dog that attacked Lilly," he said.

"I know it's not ideal that you need to buy insurance, but just think about it. Your dog might be a lovely dog, but they can be and are unpredictable at times.

"They're animals and they can be dangerous - and I say that as a dog owner myself - a dog in the wrong situation can always be dangerous."