Schoolgirl Maisie Wallace, 11, was savaged by the canine at a friend’s house in Dundee before being rushed off to hospital – where she was told she would need to have the muscle in her arm reconstructed
An 11-year-old girl has been left permanently scarred after she was set upon by a vicious Pocket Bully that ripped her arm open and left her covered in blood.
Schoolgirl Maisie Wallace, 11, was savaged by the canine at a friend’s house in Dundee before being rushed off to hospital. The youngster was spending time with her pal during the Easter holidays when she was suddenly set upon at the address on Balunie Avenue on April 14. The two-year-old Pocket Bully is understood to have escaped from a locked room before pouncing on Maisie and sinking its teeth into her arm, ripping her limb open during the attack. Mum Lauren, 45, rushed her terrified daughter to Ninewells Hospital after receiving a frantic phone call.
Maisie was then wheeled off into emergency plastic surgery and spent three nights recovering on the children’s ward. Lauren, a district nurse, recalled the moment she arrived to the house to find her daughter drenched in blood with a makeshift bandage barely holding the gaping wound closed. She told the Daily Record: “Maisie phoned me screaming in tears telling me a dog had bit her.”
“When I arrived her ripped t-shirt was on the floor covered in blood and she had a bandage around her arm.” I took it off to see how deep the wound was – it was worse than I could have imagined. The bite was so deep I could see the layers of fat down to her bone and her skin had been ripped off. She will be scarred for life and needs to have the muscle in her arm reconstructed.”
Due to the severity of her injuries, doctors at A&E rushed Maisie into a three-hour long emergency plastic surgery to remove dead skin and stitch her arm back together.
Lauren continued: “The plastic surgeon told us the attack has destroyed a lot of her arm muscle. The worst of the damage is internal but she has been left with a huge scar. She was in so much pain, she couldn’t lift her arm above her head. She will need to get a skin graft and liposuction to reconstruct her arm. She has a huge scar across her arm. It’s too soon to say how well her injuries will heal.”
Pocket Bully dogs are a smaller variant of the recently banned XL Bully breed. They are exempt from new laws that came into force in Scotland last year, which makes it illegal to keep an XL Bully dog without a Certificate of Exemption. Police Scotland have launched an investigation into the attack, but Lauren has been left furious that the dog has not yet been seized.
She said: “Any dog that can do that to a child should be banned, it doesn’t matter what kind of breed it is. It has a powerful jaw like an XL Bully and can inflict the same amount of damage. The owner had to wrestle it off of my daughter. It is not under control and could hurt another child.”
Maisie had her first day back at school on Thursday, but has been left terrified after her ordeal. Lauren said: “Maisie doesn’t want to leave the house because she’s so frightened that the dog hasn’t been put down. She wasn’t keen on dogs before but now she is absolutely petrified.”
“I had to pick her up from school early because there are people who take their dogs to the school gates. She was even scared to get on the school bus with her pals and has lost so much confidence. She is an outgoing girl and loves performing. She won’t be able to attend her musical theatre school for six weeks and will miss out on her summer show. She’s gutted. It’s not just the physical trauma of the attack she has had to deal with.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 7.20pm on Monday, 14 April, 2025, we received a report of an 11-year-old girl being attacked by a dog within a property in Balunie Avenue earlier in the day. She was taken to Ninewells Hospital for treatment. Enquiries are ongoing.”