Latest in line of dog attacks

The death of a four-year-old boy in Liverpool follows the latest in a line of vicious, sometimes fatal, dog attacks on both children and adults.

In February this year, three and a half month old Jaden Mack was killed by a Staffordshire bull terrier and a Jack Russell at his grandmother's home in Ystrad Mynach, South Wales, devastating the local community.

The previous summer there was a rash of attacks by dogs on children in different parts of the country.

There were reports of children being bitten in Guisborough, Cleveland; Killingworth, North Tyneside; Chesterfield, Derbyshire; and Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

At New Year 2008 nine-year-old Chloe Grayson was left scarred after she was attacked by a 10 stone rottweiler in Rotherham, south Yorkshire. She was attending a New Year's Eve party with her parents at a neighbour's house.

The attack came just three days after 13-month-old Archie-Lee Hirst was killed by a rottweiler in the back yard of his grandparents' home in Wakefield.

Despite attempts by his 16-year-old aunt to save him from the dog's jaws, the youngster died later in hospital. The rottweiler was shot dead by a police marksman a few hours after the attack.

Two weeks before, kennel worker Mandy Peynado's arm was amputated because of injuries she suffered trying to protect her throat when she was mauled by a rottweiler at Knightwood Kennels, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

On January 1, 2007, five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was found bleeding to death in the living room of her grandmother's home in Merseyside after attending a family party.

The dog involved, named Reuben, was shot at the scene by Merseyside Police. It was later confirmed that the animal was a "pit bull terrier-type" banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

Ellie's uncle, 23-year-old Kiel Simpson, admitted owning the dog and was jailed for eight weeks later that year. He had been warned about its behaviour the previous June.

Ellie's grandmother, Jacqueline Simpson, was acquitted of manslaughter in relation to the attack.

In September 2006, five-month-old Cadey-Lee Deacon was fatally attacked by a pair of rottweiler guard dogs at the Rocket pub in Leicester, which was run by her grandparents.

While deaths at the hands of dogs are relatively rare, hardly a month goes by without someone, often a child, being scarred for life by an out-of-control pet.

On November 11 this year a dog was zapped with a Taser stun gun after it bit an officer who was trying to stop a street brawl. The weapon was fired at the Staffordshire bull terrier after it bit the officer's leg during a scuffle in Plymouth.

On October 29, a six-year-old boy needed reconstructive surgery to his face after he was attacked in the street by a Staffordshire bull terrier in Portsmouth. The boy suffered two "nasty" cuts to the lower part of his face.

Two weeks earlier, a two-year-old boy was mauled by two dogs in Bradford.

In March, an 11-year-old boy's ear was torn off in an attack by a pit bull-type terrier in the Alway area of Newport, South Wales.

Adults were also attacked - including railway engineer James Rehill, 78, who was "dragged like a doll" through the street in a fatal attack by his own dog in January last year.

Witnesses looked on in horror as Mr Rehill was savaged by his rottweiler in Newham, east London.