mandyw

Hi CWLD The Police have the names of several witnesses willing to give statements, but whether they've taken any yet is anyone's guess as I have been unable to speak to the PC dealing with it. As to the dog, the Police believe it's a SBT, (or a SOAB..), with a bit of something else mixed in - not huge, brown and white patchy coat, short muscular legs and chest, possibly a bit of boxer in there. Got a horrible feeling they're going to get it back.

My original posting seems to have sparked several arguments, some of which are frankly far from the point of my thread which does seem to have been somewhat hijacked. A tad insensitive I'd say. But hey, it's a forum so people will inevitably, and have the right, to 'speak their brains' even if they have no personal experience of a dog attack themselves. I have no desire to incite hatred towards dogs/makes of dog, owners, or indeed the bloody 'make' of the owner themselves, should such a thing exist. As a family we are animal-lovers, my daughter particularly so, and she had desperately wanted a dog of her own this summer, so the whole incident seems particularly cruel. She won't leave the house in case it happens again and has lost a lot of her former confidence, as well as any joy she had in dogs, and who can blame her? But I digress, the point is that even though she has suffered a serious attack which could have killed her, the INDIVIDUAL that owns this PARTICULAR animal has yet to face any charges, has so far shown no remorse or concern, (that I am aware of), and did nothing to help me as my child and I lay screaming for help outside their front door. Even worse, they have apparently tried to get the dog back. The animal is currently being assessed and could well be returned to its owners if the relevant authority deems it safe to do so. This is the law in our country. So apart from wanting very much to thank those that did help us, I wanted to warn others, (especially those living in St Aiden's Road), that it ain't cut and dry when a dog attacks someone. In my opinion, there is no doubt that any dog can be dangerous if it has an idiot for an owner, and yes I will be speaking to the press, and yes I will prosecute the owner if the Police don't.

-- moved topic --

No. According to the Police it doesn't work like that. They don't remove and destroy them as a matter of course. For the Police to prosecute the owner, the dog gets to stay with the owner until the case goes to court, which would take several months. The alternative course of action, in which we had a say, is that the owner agrees to sign the dog over to the Police for 'assessment', and they are given the assurance that it won't be automatically destroyed. We obviously felt that this, at least, must be done, for the safety of others. Meanwhile, we are left with the responsibilty of pursuing a civil case. To date, we have not been informed of the dog's fate.

In response to the enquiries re the dog attack on St Aiden's Road 3 weeks ago, it was my 6 year old daughter who was mauled by what I think was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in a totally unprovoked attack. She sustained terrible injuries to her right leg and is now terrified to leave the house. The dog was outside, unsupervised, and the owner, who must have heard me screaming for help, did nothing to help us. Furthermore, when the ambulance arrived, she simply let the dog back in and shut the door. As far as I am aware she has made no effort to enquire about my daughter's condition since the attack. As a family we are obviously traumatised and extremely angry. I want to thank all the people who did come to our assistance and bravely beat the f****ing thing over the head in an attempt to get it off her. These dogs are dangerous, once their jaws are clamped round it's prey, it's extremely hard to get them off, as their jaws lock. It was a terrifying experience and she could have lost her foot if it weren't for the intervention of those people. Indeed, had it got to her throat it would have killed her. What is astounding is that the animal wasn't immediately removed and destroyed. Be warned folks, dogs and their owners seem to have more rights than children.

Yep, it's true the home secretary does live there. Walking to Nunhead station this morning, I saw two cops, one with a sub-machine gun, standing outside the house. A guy came out of the house next door and told me the score. Talk about drawing attention to someone's location...