Tayside has been revealed as a hotbed for dangerous dog attacks despite warnings that unlicensed breeding is spiralling out of control.
New figures have shown health services across the region have dealt with the highest number of animal attacks in Scotland outside Glasgow, with almost 1,300 reported in the last three years.
According to thefreedom of information statistics from the Scottish Conservatives, nearly three-quarters of the 11,000 incidents recorded nationwide were put down to dog bites.
The worrying trend follows a catalogue of warnings from animal rescue charities, including Angus Dog Rescue, who have warned it is only a matter of time before somebody is killed by the kind of vicious hybrids being bred in private homes.
Leading criminologist Dr Simon Harding, of Middlesex University, has said Dundee is experiencing the perfect storm of circumstances that could result in the city becoming the scene of a tragedy most likely involving a child.
NHS Fife also responded to the data request, reporting 167 incidents involving 73 dogs, 46 “other mammals”, 33 instances of people being bitten or stung by insects and 15 cases where someone had come into “contact with other animal or insect”.
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