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| Joan and Kevin Longmore have been left in shock after their Jack Russell was fatally attacked by a staghound on Saturday morning. Mr Longmore also sustained puncture wounds and bites in the attack. Picture: Declan Ruremga |
Mr Longmore watched in horror as the dog wrapped its jaws around his beloved Jack Russell and fatally wounded it early on Saturday.
As he hit and kicked the staghound in vain, its deadly jaws tightened around the small Jack Russell, releasing its bite only briefly as it launched itself at Mr Longmore, dragging him towards the ground.
Reaching for a small penknife that he uses to sharpen wood, Mr Longmore stabbed the staghound.
The dog, reeling from the shock of the sudden attack, released its grip and fled across the road, where it lay down and died.
As Mr Longmore and his wife Joan yesterday reflected on the attack, which left Mr Longmore with a number of bites and puncture wounds, he said that ultimately, he was lucky to be alive.
“It drove me down on the road like a rag doll,” Mr Longmore said.
“It (the street) looked like a kangaroo had been hit on the road, there was so much blood.”
Mr Longmore’s right arm bore the brunt of the attack as he attempted to fend the dog off, sustaining punctures just three centimetres from a main artery.
“If the dog had started shaking me, that’s when he would have done even more damage,” he said.
Mr Longmore, a 69-year-old Junee resident, had walked his dog down Gloucester Street nearly every day for the past eight years and had never encountered anything like he had on Saturday morning.
“The staghound came out like a bullet,” he said.
The Longmores said a number of people had come out as the attack worsened, including one man who was armed with an axe.
As the reality of Saturday morning’s horrific turn of events set in, the Longmore’s have been left to deal with the sudden loss of their loved pet.
“It’s a bit hard,” Mr Longmore said.
(Daily Advertiser - Jan 24, 2012)
