UNITED KINGDOM -- A WOMAN told yesterday how she saw a little girl smile at a rottweiler puppy in the street – and then watched in horror as two other huge dogs of the same breed attacked the child.
Grandmother Irene Grady, 57, who witnessed the attack from her window, said she ran out and dragged the 10-year-old away from the animals.
Mrs Grady was giving evidence at Dundee Sheriff Court, where Sarah Kerr and Derek Adam deny owning and being in charge of the 18-week-old puppy, Rocky, and two bigger rottweilers, Fat Boy and Pretty Girl.
Mrs Grady said she feared for the child when she saw the puppy and the two dogs standing in front of the girl’s bicycle, and shouted to the girl to keep pedalling.
“Suddenly one jumped up and dragged her by the arm off the bike,” she said.
“I ran outside right away. When I got to the door she was in the middle of the main road. She managed to get up but they pulled her down again.
“The two big dogs were biting and she was screaming. A man was tooting his car horn to scare them. They ran away, but came straight back.”
Mrs Grady broke down in tears as she said: “I got to her and the dogs just moved away. I got her up. She was screaming about her leg and that her jaw was broken.
“We walked back to my house. The big dog was at my back all the way.
“Its mouth was huge. I could feel it breathing on my back, snarling. Its eyes were huge. It was still in an excited state.
“I was in shock. We flopped down on the sofa and there was blood everywhere.
“She had bite marks the size of the end of a biro pen on her face.”
The girl’s father, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, was called by a relative minutes later.
He said: “I ran over to the house and she was lying there, covered in blood and pale with shock.
“She said she could feel bones in her mouth and there were chunks missing from her legs and arms.”
The trial heard the child suffered a broken jaw, multiple puncture wounds and gaping wounds on her leg.
Kerr, whose address was given as c/o a Dundee solicitors’ office, denies being in charge of the three dogs and that they were dangerously out of control in Dundee on August 29 last year.
Adam, 39, of Dundee, denies being the owner of the rottweilers at the time, as well as failing to comply with a control order made in March 2010 on two of the dogs.
The trial continues.
(Express UK - Dec 6, 2011)
