Terrier needed 20 stitches after Portrush attack

The woman, who does not want to be identified, was walking two of her dogs at the West Bay car park last Wednesday evening.

Arriving by car, the lady claimed she had just got out of her car with her two dogs when she saw another woman walking a large black German Shepherd in their direction.

"My dog Polly is a 15-year-old terrier cross whose eyesight and hearing isn't great and I also had my little Corgi with me," the woman claimed.

"I saw this woman coming round from behind the toilet block towards me and the dog was pulling and hauling at her. I was so concerned by it that I lifted my Corgi into my arms and stood still waiting for them to pass.

"I called for Polly to wait but she was standing with her back to them when the dog dragged the owner over to us and it grabbed Polly by the back leg.

"It trailed her down the path. I was screaming and tried to pull it off her. The woman just shouted at me that it was my fault for not having my dogs on leads but we had just got out of the car and I had stopped to let them pass because I was so worried about the way her dog was behaving. She just turned and walked away.

"I put the dogs into the car and at that stage didn't realise how badly injured Polly was until I saw all the blood. I drove straight to the vet in Dervock."

Polly was so badly injured that she required 20 stitches to her wounds and had to stay overnight with the vet on a drip for shock and pain.

"If the woman had even apologised it wouldn't have been so bad," said the Portrush dog owner.

"I immediately reported the incident to the Council Dog Warden because I walk my dogs a lot in Portrush. This was a completely unprovoked attack."

A spokesman for Coleraine Borough Council confirmed that the attack had been reported to one of its dog wardens.