A FIVE year old boy is in intensive care after being mauled by his family’s Rottweilers.
Sacha Simonnet, nearly died after the two dogs missed his jugular vein by millimetres.
The boy is facing plastic surgery after needing hundreds of stiches to wounds in his head, face, neck and arms.
The attack was so fierce he has broken two vertibrae in his spine.
The dogs, Bambi and Gnasher, who have been pets for six years, suddenly turned on the boy at his home in Alhaurin, on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
“The doctor said it was incredible they missed his jugular vein,” said his father Dominic, a marketing boss, from Stratford upon Avon.
“I want to warn other people that something like this can happen. People think: ‘My dog isn’t like that’. Well, I thought my dogs weren’t like that either.”
The boy’s grandfather Ray Williams added: “It was terrifying. He will need to spend the next few weeks in hospital. He is lucky to be alive.
“Sacha was playing in the front garden when we suddenly heard him shout the name ‘Bambi’ and scream.
“The dogs had jumped over a blue gate from their compound and were attacking him.
“We all ran out and it was only thanks to the quick thinking of a family friend, who kicked one of the dogs on the nose, that we managed to pull them off.”
The bloodied boy was rushed to the Infant Hospital in Malaga where he remains on a drip and respirator.
“He is in a serious condition, but stable,” said a hospital spokesman.
Dominic and wife Lisa, who have another daughter Chavela, relocated to Spain from Warwickshire six years ago.
They had recently moved from Alicante to their new home in Alhaurin to concentrate on their internet marketing business Webterranean.
They cannot understand how the dogs, who had until then been gentle family pets, suddenly flipped.
“The dogs had been great up until now,” continued the boy’s grandfather. “There had been absolutely no warnings of anything untoward.
“This breed of dog is a threat to young children and people should not keep them as pets.”
The dogs have now been taken to a refuge where they will be put down in 15 days.
Rottweilers are on Spain’s list of ‘dangerous dogs’ breeds, which also includes pit bulls and Staffordshire bull terriers.
not all rottweilers are like this…it depends on how the dogs are treated or sometimes it depends on irresponsible breeding …..it is not the dogs fault…i know people with rottweilers and they wouldnt hurt a fly….and these they have had from 6 weeks till now 10 years….not all dogs are like these two….