The police say they are keen to reassure the local community that the dog that had "severely bitten" a woman yesterday evening, Thursday, June 28, has been located and caught.
A police spokesman said they were called to an incident that took place at around 10.15pm on Comfort Road between the Norway Inn and Mylor Primary School in the Mylor Bridge area of Falmouth.
He added: "An injured and terrified woman called police to say a dog had bitten her and it was attempting to chew its way into her car.
"Seconds earlier the woman had approached a dog that was in the middle of the road as she was concerned for its welfare.
"As the woman approached, the dog attacked her and bit her legs causing severe injury. The woman fortunately was able to quickly get to safety inside her car.
"When emergency services arrived the dog ran off. The woman, aged 19, was taken to Treliske Hospital by paramedics where surgery was required on her leg."
As the incident was close to Mylor school, police sergeant Tim Wilson who was in charge at the scene made the decision that the dog must be located as soon as possible.
There were concerns that this dog was dangerous and there was potential for the dog to attack someone else, possibly a child in the morning on their way to school.
At around 2.20am officers located the dog but initially were unable to capture it and it ran off.
Around an hour later the dog was located again and it was cornered. A police dog handler, PC Phil Nankivell, needed to use a padded arm sleeve, used for training dogs, to get the dog into a cage in the police car.
In the process the dog managed to damage part of the car, a dog loop and a police hat.
The dog, described as a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier, was taken to a vets.
The spokesman said: "The decision was made to put the dog down. This was due to the dogs aggressiveness, because it had already been bitten a member of the public and police has so far been unable to trace the owner.
“We are keen to reassure the local community that this dog has now been caught and destroyed.
"A woman has had a nasty bite from this dog and if it wasn’t for the good work of police officers someone else could have been seriously hurt – and if it was a child with potentially fatal consequences.
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“Our advice is not to approach an unknown dog. If anyone has concerns call the police or RSPCA so it can be dealt with properly.”
Police are keen to trace the owner of the dog, described as a female, tan coloured Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Anyone with any information is urged to call the police on 101, quoting log number 860 of 28 June 2012.
(Falmouth Packet - June 29, 2012)
