A dog claimed to understand “more than 300 commands in Latin” is at risk of being put down after biting a police officer’s backside.
Michael Obern screamed in pain after he was bitten by the 40kg Carpathian shepherd dog – named Shroom – in October 2021, just two months after it attacked a woman at a campsite, Salisbury Magistrates’ Court was told.
But the canine’s owner Gemma Sankey insisted that PC Obern’s injuries were not caused by her dog and looked more “like a spotty bum”, claiming that “a Chihuahua would have made more bite marks”.
Her argument was rejected by prosecutors who said she was “in denial about what Shroom is capable of”, with magistrates finding her guilty of two counts of failing to control a dangerous animal.
The Crown Prosecution Service is now submitting an application for the dog to be put down, and it has been kept in police custody since the incident 18 months ago.
Sankey, of Amesbury, in Wiltshire, told the court she had worked as a dog psychologist with a special knowledge of “canine aggression” for over 35 years, having previously owned four dogs and 15 horses. But prosecutors insisted she had no formal qualifications, and should not be considered an expert.
The 51-year-old denied both offences, telling magistrates: “When Shroom gets terribly excited she jumps up occasionally. She knows over 300 commands in Latin, so you could say she’s very long in the tooth.
“The picture of Mrs Vincent’s injury looks like a ‘spotty bum,’ not like a dog bite. PC Obern gave Shroom a slap hit and then he turned away. His injuries were not caused by a bite from Shroom – a Chihuahua would have made more bite marks.”
Carpathian shepherd dogs originate from Romania, where they were bred for their size and strength to guard livestock from bears and wolves.
The attack against PC Obern occurred while he was helping Sankey move some items into a Travelodge in Devizes, prosecutors said.
The officer, who knew Sankey from his time as a community support officer, alleged she had previously warned him not to wear high-vis clothing as this would make the dog “react”, and therefore chose to wear a black police vest.
But he told the court that when he approached the dog it attacked him almost immediately, saying: “I managed to pet her but she then bit my left buttock.
“It ripped my trousers, ripped my boxer shorts and broke the skin. The dog was on a lead but it was quite a long one. I then told Ms Sankey to take the dog inside. I had a bruise for a week, but I had been bitten by a human in another incident a few months before so I’d already had a tetanus injection.”
The court was shown bodycam footage captured by PC Obern in which he could be seen petting the dog. Moments later, the police officer was heard screaming in pain as the dog bit him in the buttock off camera.
Magistrates heard that Shroom had bitten a women who was cleaning tents at a glamping site Sankey had stayed at two months previously.
Michelle Vincent, who lived on her parents’ campsite in the village of Seend, told the court: “I went down to help my mum get a tent ready for a new arrival later that day. Gemma came out with her dog on a lead and was talking to my mum.
“Shroom lunged at me and bit the back of my left thigh – she pulled Gemma off her stance. I told Gemma ‘your dog’s just bitten me’. She was a very big dog. She said ‘no it hasn’t, there’s no hole in your trousers’. Gemma said ‘show me your leg,’ but I didn’t want to take my trousers off in the middle of a field and show a stranger my thigh.
“When I looked later I had red circles along where the knicker line is. I knew Shroom has bitten through two leads in the past while tied up to a picnic bench. I don’t blame Shroom at all – being tied up continually is not conducive to good behaviour.
“Had it been a small child it could have been a really serious injury.”
Magistrates deliberated for just 30 minutes before finding Sankey guilty of two counts of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury. She will be sentenced at a later date.
Additional reporting by Solent News Service
