AUSTRALIA -- Retiree Tom Saban is still trying to catch his breath after narrowly escaping a dog attack without injury on Monday afternoon.
Mr Saban, 78, was walking his Jack Russell terrier with his wife at Morgan's Way, Kalkie, about 5.30am when two dogs bounded up to them.
One dog grabbed Mr Saban's terrier around the stomach, while the other pushed Mr Saban to the ground.
"I had to kick the other dog to get it away from me," he said.
The Kalkie man said he felt lucky to be wearing steel cap boots because he thought it helped scare the dog away from him.
During the attack, one dog ripped Mr Saban's shirt while the other left his own pet, Zac, with internal bruising and possible internal bleeding.
"I'm pretty well shaken up," he said.
"I am 78 and the dog was just ready to kill."
Mr Saban said the dogs, which were both large and white with brown spots, had come out of a house nearby.
"The owner came flying across to help get the dogs," Mr Saban said.
But the next morning when Mr Saban approached the man about paying his vet bills, he refused.
"What worries me most is there are a lot of kids with little dogs who walk them in our area," he said.
Mr Saban said he had also reported the matter to Bundaberg Regional Council, which said it would investigate.
Councillor Mary Wilkinson confirmed the council was following through with the complaint.
"The council follows through on all these complaints," she said.
Cr Wilkinson said it would take time to interview witnesses to the incident, the Sabans and the dogs' owners before a decision was made.
"We haven't got to the end of it yet," she said.
"We can't just make snap decisions."
(NewsMail - Dec 15, 2011)
