A County Durham family's last-minute break in an 'idyllic' farm campsite turned to horror when they claim that their 12-week-old puppy was attacked by a dog running loose on the farm.
Ann and Shaun Kelly, from Quaking Houses, near Stanley, travelled to Ravenscleugh campsite, near Elsdon, Northumberland, with their 11-year-old daughter Iris and mini labradoodle Hana last summer, as a break with another family to mark the girls' last term at primary school.
The families arrived on the Friday evening and pitched up at the site, which is attached to a farm in a remote spot south of Otterburn. However, the Kelly family say their hopes of a relaxing time in the great outdoors came to a dramatic end the following morning, when Ann, 48, decided to put Hana on her lead and take her for a walk.
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"A collie cross came bounding over and when it saw Hana, it immediately adopted what's known as an aggressive dog stance," claims Ann. "Its hackles were up and it was growling then it just lunged at Hana. I yanked her up by her lead and the dog was jumping up at her and snapping. I managed to get away from the dog and got inside my car with Hana to escape and my friend shooed the dog away.
"I was a bit shaken, but I got out of the car with Hana, put her back down, then the dog just appeared from nowhere and started to go for Hana again and this time caught her before I managed to get her out of the way. Hana ended up with a really deep bite and the whole incident happened in front of the children, including my friend's three-year-old, who has really upset about it. It was traumatic."
Ann claims attempts to speak to the owner of the other dog were unsuccessful, leaving them to fork out the insurance excess for the vet bill.
"With hindsight, we should have made a bigger deal of things, but at that stage, we didn't realise the extent of the damage," said Ann. "We stayed the night and went home, and it wasn't until the next day that we realised how bad the bite was. I took Hana to the vet and she needed stiches and surgery, which came to over £1,000. Luckily she is covered by pet insurance but it was a really nasty wound and I still had to pay the excess of £150.
"At that point, I contacted the owners of the dog and got no response. In September, my insurance company sent a letter to reclaim the money it had paid out for Hana's operation, but again this was ignored, so this was not pursued.
"I am still furious that there has been no resolution. The dog that attacked Hana was fine with humans, we had no concerns there, although I read the site has a policy that all dogs should be on leads, so I don't think the dog should have been left to run loose."
Chroniclelive reached out to the campsite to comment about the alleged attack.
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