Foaming at the mouth, the bulldogs attacked the one tonne Limousin bull in his farm pen, climbing over its back and tearing at its ears and underbelly as they reduced the animal to a bloody mess on its knees.
The powerful dogs are now in secure kennels awaiting a district judge’s decision about whether they will live or die and their owner, Leanne Meredith, 33, wept when she was found guilty of two offences at a court case this week.
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| Leanne Meredith, owner of killer dogs |
Speaking after the case, farmer Hefin Thomas, who owned the bull, Hercules, which was later put down, said: “These dogs got into the shed where the bull and they attacked him.
“The bull was on his knees. They chewed his ears.
“It was like the Hounds of the Baskervilles. The neighbours heard the sound of the dogs and banging and we went up and saw all this going on.”
One farm worker told the court at Holyhead he feared for his life when the dogs, named Murphy and Miley, attacked Hercules at Tynygongl farm, near Benllech, last July.
District Judge Andrew Shaw heard Hercules was covered in blood and one of his ears had been “shredded”.
The dogs had also been hurt, with one of them having a broken jaw.
After a two day trial, Meredith, who was living at a neighbouring holding at Tynygongl, was found guilty of allowing the dogs to worry livestock and a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act of allowing the dogs to enter a place where they were not permitted to be.
Judge Shaw rejected Meredith’s claims that the attack had taken place after the bull had strayed on to her property and the dogs were defending themselves and that prosecution witnesses were lying.
After a separate trial, Meredith, a single mother now living in Arterberry Road, Wimbledon, was found guilty of a further Dangerous Dogs Act charge relating to another dog and an incident on land adjoining a caravan site at Tynygongl in which nine sheep died.
Hefin, 59, said his bull was “in a terrible state”, adding: “We had to put him down.”
The pedigree animal, worth about £4,000, had survived on medication for several months after the attack.
“It was such a shame, you could put a baby on his back he was such a gentle bull,” he said.
“I’ve been with animals all my life and I have never seen anything like that.
“The vet had never seen anything like it. There was blood everywhere, it was a hell of a mess.
“They were on its back. You know when you see lions jumping on zebras? That is how it was.
“I really was upset. I had brought that bull up.”
The three-year-old bull was named Hercules by Hefin’s grandchildren.
He added: “I’m so glad there were no human beings there. If there had been it would have been even worse.”
Referring to the dogs, he said: “It was like a monster you see on TV, all mouth and teeth.
“Hercules had no ears left. His ears were chewed off.
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| Hercules: "He was such a gentle bull" |
“They were on his back. Everything was just covered in blood. It was cornered.”
District Judge Shaw adjourned sentence on all the cases until next month and ordered a report from the probation service.
Nia Lloyd, prosecuting, said there will be applications for destruction of the dogs, compensation, disqualification from keeping dogs, and court costs.
Kennel fees for Murphy and Miley have so far amounted to £11,318.
Paul Humpherson, defending, said Meredith had kept dogs without trouble all her life, mainly in London.
(Wales Online - May 18, 2013)
