COSTLY: Goh Boon Bee paid over $6,000 in fines and compensation.

She was fined $2,500 yesterday for letting a Siberian Husky under her care bite a three-year-old girl at Tanjong Beach last September.

Goh has also agreed to compensate the girl's family for their medical bills, which came up to nearly $3,400.

On top of that, she had earlier paid a composition fine of $300 to the authorities for having a dog without a licence and for not leashing it in a public place.

Goh pleaded guilty last month to being negligent in allowing a 'ferocious dog' to be unmuzzled.

District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan postponed sentencing for Goh to take up his suggestion of compensating the girl's father for her injuries.

She could have been fined up to $5,000.

Yesterday, the court was told that Goh had agreed to pay the compensation in instalments of at least $100 a month. The payments will be made via bank transfer.

On Sept 30, the girl's 41-year-old father had taken his family to Sentosa for a stroll along the beach. He saw an unleashed, unmuzzled black-and-white Siberian Husky charge towards his daughter. It bit her on both sides of her head.

He rushed towards them and chased the dog away. Four days later, he made a police report.

The girl had a 3.5cm-long cut on her left ear, which went deep into the cartilage. The wound has since healed.

She was warded for a night and her medical bill totalled almost $3,400.

Goh told the police that her friend, Ms Toh Xiao Wei, 20, was the dog's owner and that Ms Toh had left it with her that month.

The dog was examined and found to be free of infectious diseases.

The husky, named Lancer, was taken to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which found that its temperament was not suitable for it to be adopted by another owner.

The dog was put down in November.