Pet loses eye after incident

The local Dog Warden is investigating claims of a '˜dog on dog' attack at Kernan Playing Fields in Portadown,
Ben who was attacked by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers at Kernan on Sunday causing him to lose an eye. INPT16-205.Ben who was attacked by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers at Kernan on Sunday causing him to lose an eye. INPT16-205.
Ben who was attacked by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers at Kernan on Sunday causing him to lose an eye. INPT16-205.

It’s been claimed a Shih Tzu lost an eye after a large dog gripped it in his jaws and shook it violently.

The tiny pet was shaken so viciously his eye was dislodged from its socket, his owner claimed.

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The circumstances of the incident are being disputed, with both sides giving differing versions of events,

Owner of the injured dog said she had been walking along lower Kernan Playing Fields on Sunday afternoon at 4pm when, what she described as, two Staffordshire Bull Terriers pounced on her little Ben.

The woman said had been walking with her sister and nephew with another little dog - an 11-year-old Bison called Junior - when the two other dogs began to attack.

“It was terrifying. I have never seen anything so vicious in my life. Wee Ben was just mauled,” she said, adding that her nephew held Junior in the air so the other dog couldn’t attack it.

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“Those dogs should be removed from the owner. It could have been a child injured or worse,” she said. “I feel traumatised by what happened and my dog will never be the same again.”

She revealed Ben had spent some time with a Lurgan vet recovering and had to have his eye removed as it was so badly damaged. “His eye is very inflamed and he is on a lot of painkillers and anti-biotics. He is very jumpy and I doubt I will ever be able to take him out for a walk again,” she said.

The lady, who rescued Ben from a shelter in Ballymena, said she has been to the Dog Warden who is investigating. “I would like to see this dog owner brought before the courts.”

An eyewitness called the Times with a differing version of events. The witness said he was with the owner of the dogs accused of the attack. They had also been adopted from a rescue centre.

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He said they had been walking back to their car with the dogs playing off the lead. He spotted a group of girls and the dogs heading towards them. He said the girls started screaming and he claimed one of the girls was ‘swinging her dog around on the lead’.

He further claimed the girls overreacted and accused one of them of kicking his friend’s dog. He added he never saw any of the dogs attacking the girl’s dog and added that her dog’s injuries ‘may have happened due to swinging about’.

ABC council said: “A complaint has been received regarding an alleged incident involving two dogs at Kernan Playing Fields. The Dog Warden investigation into the incident is ongoing and is being carried out in line with the Council’s Dog Control Enforcement Policy. It is an offence to be a keeper (or be in charge) of a dog that attacks and injures any other animal owned by another person - enforcement options may include the imposition of a notice of control conditions on the dog licence or prosecution where the maximum penalty on conviction is £1,000.”

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