Local mother and son left shocked by dog attack

A LOCAL woman has told of her horror as she and her young son watched their two puppies being attacked by a larger dog whilst out walking last week.

Sharon Bickerstaff and her eight-year-old son Ethan were walking their two pug cross pups along the Pond Park Road around 9pm on Tuesday April 5 when the young dogs were attacked by a large dog.

One of the pups, Jackson, 10 months, was left with blood streaming from wounds from his back legs and across his back to his neck, whilst the other, Bingo, six months, narrowly avoided being run over by a car when it ran away in fear.

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Sharon said: “It was horrible, absolutely terrible. We were walking down the Pond Park Road when we were attacked by a large dog.”

Sharon said the dog that attacked her pups was on a lead and collar, however, the person walking the dog, a young girl, was far behind the animal.

She added: “Numerous cars stopped to help for which we are very grateful as it was only when others intervened to help us pull this large dog off our pups that the person who was with it came across the road from the corner of Belmont Drive to claim the dog.

“Both our pups were on short leads as the footpath is very near to the main road and in fact the dog which attacked us also had on a lead and a collar. It had run straight across the main road to the side of the road we were on, trailing its lead.

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“My son and I had blood and mess smeared over us and our clothes, my son was crying and I was shaking with shock,” Sharon added.

Having called to report the incident to the police, which was then passed onto the Dog Warden, Sharon said that nothing could be done about the attack.

“The Dog Warden phoned and unfortunately, because I don’t know who the girl is or where she lives, nothing can be done. The best thing I can hope for is that the dog owner voluntarily puts a muzzle on it in public. Because it was a dog on dog attack, with the law, there is nothing the Dog Warden can do.”

Sharon, who was due to move out of the area last weekend anyway, said that her pups’ temperament had changed since the attack.

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“I couldn’t get them to settle after the attack, they whimpered and cried and I tried taking them to bed with me. Eventually I got them settled in bed with a hot water bottle.

“I was so chuffed because they would just walk on past any dogs or people they saw, now they won’t be quiet, if anything goes past the window they are up barking.”

The pups lost patches of hair in the attack, but were luckily not seriously injured.

Sharon, however, said that her young son was left afraid to bring the dogs out for a walk again.

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“He started crying and said he didn’t want the dogs hurt, he didn’t want any more blood, so it has caused him some problems.

“Anyone walking a dog should make sure they can control the dog. It’s not a matter of the dog being nice with its owners, I’m sure that dog is lovable at home, but if you can’t control it then is should be muzzled, it’s not doing them any harm and it might safeguard other dogs.

“It could have been so much worse,” Sharon concluded.