A woman was left severely shaken and facing a £3,500 vet bill after her dog was viciously attacked by a "hunting dog" at a popular Welsh beauty spot.
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Sue Jones was on her way to a week-long break to St Davids with her dog Obi and decided to stop off at Bosherston Lily Ponds in Pembrokeshire enroute. But as she walked over one of the bridges on the Stackpole Estate, she said a dog slipped its collar and was "on Obi in an instant".
Sue, 57, said she was knocked to the ground as the loose dog pounced on her border collie and refused to let it go. Another dog walker intervened and managed to prise the dog's jaws open enough to release Obi who was bleeding profusely at this point.
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"We were walking from the eight-arched bridge towards Broadhaven," said Sue, who was left shaken by the "traumatic" incident. "We were just about to turn around. I saw a man and a woman with their two dogs on leads and I shouted over to ask if they wanted me to put Obi on a lead and they said I better had."
Sue said Obi was on a lead by her feet when one of the dogs with the couple suddenly slipped its collar: "He was on Obi within a second," she said. "It was on a lead so I hadn't been particularly worried. It was all over so quickly."
Another dog walker helped the man release Obi from the jaws of the dog and Sue said he was bitten in the process.
"I was really shaken," she continued. "I just wanted to get my dog to the vets. I just left, I was in such a state of shock. I was just on a mission to get him to the vets." She said the couple refused to provide any contact details, despite being asked repeatedly by the man who intervened and explaining that they might need to help with vets bills.
She said the attacking dog was thickset with "heavy shoulders", but she was unable to determine exactly what breed. Obi was put under sedation at the vets in Pembroke and was stitched up after being X-rayed. Sue said the vets told her Obi was lucky not to have had his lung punctured, such was the depth of the wound inflicted by the other dog.
The final bill came to £3,500 which was covered by her pet insurance. "Money isn't the issue here," she said. "But it's a big thing for something that's not your fault. Obi is really lucky. And I've really been shaken by the whole thing.
"I think the dog that attacked him was a hunting dog that had been trained to fight. It should never have been allowed to be walking in a public area where families and dog walkers go. I'd hate for it to happen to anybody else. What if it had been a small child walking over the bridge?" Obi will make a full recovery physically but he would be even more wary around other dogs now, said Sue.
She said she notified the local dog warden and also reported it to Dyfed-Powys Police, but said the officer told her it was unlikely they would ever find the dog or its owners.
Sue said she never managed to get to the break she'd planned in St Davids and instead returned to her home in the Gower. She added: "I just want people to be aware these things are happening. It was just horrifying."
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