Help us save our beautiful Digby from being destroyed

This is my dog Digby, the first incident with my dog happened because again the child got too close to his face. They were playing and Digby nicked the child's face, it was 100% out of play, NOT AGGRESSION, but caused us to be aware of children getting too close to him. The incident was not reported as the childs parents were very understanding about the situation and it wasn't taken any further.

Since then we have seeked advice from our vets and been to an extensive behavioural appointment. We have all worked together as a family to protect Digby and children so that this wouldn't happen again. I would also like to point out that before both incidents happened, Digby was savagely attacked by a staffy which was off its lead while Digby was on his lead on a dog walk back in 2014, ending in a very expensive operation to repair the damage caused by the other dog. We reported this to the police and was told that nothing could be done about a dog on dog attack. It had made us more aware of Digby's nervousness since the attack which is why we take extra precautions not to have strangers/children in his safe environment (home) when we are out.

January 9th, my dad had told my youngest brother not to invite anyone into the house as he was just running my other brother to work. Unfortunately my youngest brother decided to go against my dads wishes and invited them round anyway as they were going to go swimming together. The child that cannot be named, leant on Digby to take a Selfie even though he has been previously warned several times not to get in the dogs face. He ignored what we had previously told him and attempted to take a selfie, which caused Digby to feel threatened in his own home and reacted. The only way that he could of protected himself was by using his teeth. Dogs are not able to tell someone to get out of their face or punch them away, it is their only way of defending themselves. It is common knowledge that you should never put your face in a dogs face as it does threaten them.

We are deeply apologetic that this ever happened to the boy. In the courts on 6th July my dad was not able to give the full story of what had caused this to happen and every detail that has lead up to this. As a family we feel that the punishment was very harsh. My dad has been sentenced to 200 hours of community work, a £5000 fine in compensation, £170 in court costs and Digby will be destroyed within 7 days. Digby does not deserve to be killed for this accident or labeled as a dog that is dangerously out of control. Myself and my entire family are heartbroken that it has ended this way and will never forget this.

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