CHILDREN in Bolton's primary schools are to be warned that a dog's bite is much worse than its bark.

Doctors at Bolton Royal Infirmary's accident and emergency unit are worried about the number of children they see who have been bitten by dogs.

So now a campaign is planned to warn children that dogs can be dangerous and to tell parents how to treat dog bites.

A report presented to the council's home safety committee says that a survey was carried out at one primary school.

Of 219 children aged between 4 and 11 who were quizzed, 75 had been bitten and 16 needed hospital treatment.

The name of the school has not been disclosed.

Anna Basford, corporate affairs manager for community healthcare with Bolton NHS Trust, said: "We will be warning children that they do have to be careful how they approach some dogs.

"A lot of the advice will be common sense like telling parents not to leave children alone with a dog they do not know."

Councillors were told that there were no statistics available at the moment on the number of children treated at Bolton Royal Infirmary.

But research carried out at a hospital in Bath was presented to councillors which revealed that they dealt with 440 animal bites a year.

While 400 were from dogs, the others included a horse, parrot, chimpanzee, tiger and snake.

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