Jack Lis' mum shares account of fatal dog attack on Panorama

Jack Lis was killed at a house in Penyrheol, Caerphilly on November 8, 2021, by an American XL Bully named Beast – which weighed more than eight stone by the time it was 15 months old.

The animal was later shot dead by armed police officers.

Speaking on BBC One’s Panorama, Jack’s mum Emma Whitfield said she is unable to shake the last image of her 10-year-old son being what she saw after the fatal attack.

“He said ‘Can I go out to play?’. And he wanted to take his skateboard with him,” she said.

“The last thing I said to him was ‘Be careful’.

Jack Lis was killed by a dangerous dog, aged just 10. (Image: Newsquest)

“Jack had met his friend straight after leaving the house. His friend said ‘Do you want to come and see my new dog?’.

“Within maybe 10-15 minutes of that, my door knocked.

“A lady asked if I was Jack's mum. I said yes.

“She said ‘He’s been attacked by a dog’.

“I just jumped in the car. I pulled up outside the house. You could hear the dog barking.

“The dog tried running through the door, and that’s how I saw the dog’s face.”

She said that the dog had only attacked Jack’s face and neck.

• READ MORE: Dangerous dog laws 'woefully inadequate' after two fatal attacks in 12 months.

“[The paramedics] kept saying they were working on him,” she said. “And then the paramedic walked away and came back with a blanket.

“I knew.

“I can't say out loud what else I saw, because I don't want other people to have to picture it.

“Every time I shut my eyes I try and tell myself that’s not the last image that I’ve got of him.

“I try to tell myself it's when he shut the door with his skateboard in his hands.

“But that's not true.”

Footage of 'Beast' just days before the dog killed Jack Lis, released by Gwent Police.

Brandon Hayden, who co-owned the dog, was jailed for four and a half years for being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death, and was also sentenced to six months in a young offenders institute for each of two charges of being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury.

Salter was sentenced to three years in prison for the offence of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death.

The pair were banned from owning a dog in the future.

Just two months after Jack was killed, Hayden was advertising a litter of American Bully puppies for sale on social media.

Hope Rescue – a charity which takes in stray dogs from Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, and parts of the Vale of Glamorgan – has had to put down 10 dogs in the last 12 months because they were in such a poor condition due to extreme breeding.

It's founder, Vanessa Whaddon, told Panorama: “The breeders don’t care. They’re not the ones that are seeing the heartache.

“These dogs aren’t going to see past their second birthdays. Some of them, including my own foster dog, were put to sleep at six months old.

“I didn’t get into rescue to have to euthanise six-month-old puppies. That’s not why I got into animal welfare.

“I can’t tell you how heart-breaking that is for us.”