AN ATTACK by a German Shepherd has left a pet dog with a gaping 5in wound. Skye, a two-year-old lurcher, needed a two-and-a-half hour operation after she was attacked in Christchurch Park.

AN ATTACK by a German Shepherd has left a pet dog with a gaping 5in wound.

Skye, a two-year-old lurcher, needed a two-and-a-half hour operation after she was attacked in Christchurch Park.

Vets had to stretch the dog's skin to allow the wound to be properly stitched – leaving splits on other parts her body.

Owner Ian Davies said moments before the vicious attack he was warned by a 10-year-old boy: "You'd better call your dog back or my dog will bite it."

Mr Davies, 36, had taken Skye for a when he received the stark warning.

The boy who issued the threat was walking the German Shepherd with another man, believed to be his father.

Mr Davies, of Gymnasium Street, Ipswich, said: "As soon as the boy shouted it to me I tried to call Skye back but it was too late."

The single-bite attack followed a short chase between the dogs, from which Skye was unable to escape.

Mr Davies was standing around 50ft away from the incident, which was over within seconds.

He said: "It was obvious that the dog had a history of this sort of thing by what the boy said and if that's the case then they shouldn't have let it off the lead.

"If it was let off then it should have been muzzled.

"The man came over to see if Skye was OK and I asked him for his name and address so I could contact him.

"Then he started saying it was 50-50 but I didn't have time to stand around and argue with him so I left – I just wanted to get Skye to see a vet.

"He didn't offer to help me or anything."

Mr Davies immediately took Skye to Smith, Ryder-Davies and Partners vets, in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, to have her wound treated.

He said Skye had been left in agony since the attack, which happened around 2.30pm on Saturday, November 2, and was taking time to recover from her frightening ordeal.

"She has been down a bit since the incident and is on pain killers, said Mr Davies. "It's a case controlling the pain through drugs."

Marc Niepold, an RSPCA inspector, said the message to people with dangerous dogs is to keep them muzzled.

He said: "If people know their dog could attack another one then it is only fair that they do this.

"We have had a lot of these sort of cases lately."

Police trying to trace dog's owners. If anyone has any information about the incident, they should call Suffolk Police on 01473 613500.

DANGEROUS dogs must be controlled by their owner – even if she's Princess Anne.

The Princess is set to face magistrates in Berkshire to face allegations her bull terrier bit two children in Windsor Great Park.

She and her husband Commander Tim Laurence are summonsed under Section 3 (1) of the Dangerous Dogs Act which governs dogs said to be "dangerously out of control in a public place."

An Ipswich Borough Council spokesman said park wardens could step in to control dangerous dogs, but there were no cast-iron laws governing behaviour.

She said: "We would expect any dog owner who used the park to exercise control.

"We operate standard by-laws which prohibit dogs from children's play areas.

"If we saw a dog behaving as though it might put somebody at risk, we would do something about it."

DOG owners have been subject to regulations since the Dog Act of 1871.

The latest version of the act, the Dangerous Dogs (Ammendment) Act 1997, states that a court may "specify measures to be taken for keeping the dog under control, whether by muzzling, keeping on a lead or excluding it from specified places."

The court can also order that male dogs be neutered, "if it would be less dangerous if neutered."

In extreme cases, where the dog owner "fails to keep it under proper control" then the dog may be destroyed.

WEB LINK

www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1989/Ukpga_19890030_en_1.htm