Susan Atkinson was shocked when her labradoodle Molly was attacked by two rogue spaniels while on a walk at Herrington Country Park.
Susan, 55, said: “Molly just loves to chase her ball and is friendly towards other dogs.
“We were only a few minutes into our walk and I threw the ball, then out of the blue two spaniels came running towards Molly.
“One in particular was quite aggressive, but the owners dashed to get their dogs back under control, for which I was grateful.
“At this stage, I hadn’t realised Molly was injured. I had to go and retrieve the ball, because Molly would not go over near the other dogs, even though the owners had hold of them.”
Susan, who moved from Sunderland to Cumbria several years ago, carried on with her walk, but soon noticed Molly was bleeding.
She took a closer look and realised she had a puncture wound on the right of her torso where she had been bitten.
“There was a puncture mark on her and she was bleeding,” Susan said. “I couldn’t believe it because at the time, the owners had apologised and said something like ‘he always does that’.”
When Susan and her husband Ian, 66, returned home, they took Molly to the vet, who shaved around the wound and gave Molly some medication.
She will need to return to the vets this week to see if the wound needs stitches.
Susan, who returns to Sunderland every weekend to see her mother-in-law, said: “This could all have been avoided if the owners, who know their dog can be aggressive, had kept it on a lead.
“We are left with a vet bill of £80 so far.
“I want to ask all owners who know their dogs can be aggressive to please keep them on leads so the rest of us can enjoy our walks.”
(Sunderland Echo - April 5, 2012)
