Dog attacked in Worsham Woods

David Martin said he was walking his pet, Rosie, in Worsham Woods, near Pebsham Lane last Wednesday morning when the completely unprovoked attack took place.

He said: " I've been walking in those woods for the past twenty years, and last Wednesday was like any other day. We walked down the woods and across the stream. In the distance I saw a man with two dogs heading towards us."

Neither of the dogs, who David describes as being, "pitbull terrier type", were on leads and as they pounded towards him, David said he just stood with Rosie to, "see what happened."

What did happen next was to leave Rosie badly injured - with two deep puncture wounds on her back and abdomen - and David in complete shock.

David said: "Rosie was on a harness and as the first dog came towards us I tried to move her out of the way, and to steer the bulldog away from her with my walking stick - but it grabbed hold of Rosie with it's teeth."

He added: "Those dogs have got massive teeth."

Despite attempting to stave off the attacker, David said it refused to "let go", and keept it's teeth clamped tight into Rosie.

The dogs owner then appeared on the scene and David describes this man as being, "darkish, quite tall and thick set, aged late twenties to early thirties". Then, in an attempt to free Rosie, David said the man proceeded to, "thrash hell out of his dog", but at first it just would not let go.

He added: "Eventually it did let go but then the other dog attacked her - she fell out of her harness and landed in the mud in pain, I think the man pulled that dog away, and as Rosie landed in the mud I was shouting."

In shock, David scooped Rosie up into his arms and asked the man where he lived; he gave David an address on the Pebsham Estate, which turned out to be false.

He said: "He seemed a decent sort of bloke but he didn't even apologise for what his dogs had done, I was in a distressed state and had difficulty breathing - Rosie was in awful pain."

Badly shaken David was able to get Rosie to a vet where she stayed all day and had her wounds treated, leaving David with a vets bill of 96.

David reported the attack to the police who referred him to the dog warden and in addition he has asked local residents if they know who the dog owner in question might be.

From his inquiries David has found out that children on the estate claim to know of the man, and the dogs in question, and have told him they regularly see the dogs in the children's play park.

He said: "They've seen the dogs hanging round the play park and they said they are really scared of them."

He added: "Those dogs should have muzzles on. I thought they were going to kill Rosie."

Speaking on behalf of Rother District Council, head of environmental health Richard Parker-Harding said:

"There is a distinction between when a dog attacks a person, which is investigated by the police, and when a dog attacks another animal. If we can ascertain the owner of the dog, in the first case we make an informal approach to investigate whether the dog is aggressive. Ultimately we can apply for an order on the dog through the court.

In the majority of cases though, the informal approach is enough to begin with. The difficulty of course comes when we have little information with which to find the dog and the owner. If anybody witnesses an aggressive dog or has any information they can contact the dog control team on 01424 787000."