Lee Parkin had been the proud owner of his terrier-spaniel cross Izzy for nearly 10 years when he stepped out for what would be his last walk with his beloved pet.
He was walking Izzy near his home in Doncaster when an XL bully pounced on her, mounting a 20-minute attack and ultimately killing the dog in front of Parkin, who desperately intervened in vain.
“It was such a nice day,” he said. “We were walking a normal field where I go, and I saw this dog loose. It appeared wild by its demeanour.”
Parkin, 50, took his dog through a gate but found himself cornered. The dog approached and started circling them. And then, he says, “it just grabbed her”.
“I’ve never encountered a bigger, stronger dog before in my life,” he says. “I’ve dealt with dogs attacking another dog before.”
Parkin did his best to fight the dog off. “I smashed both hands against it, I twisted its balls, I kicked it in its back end. It did nothing whatsoever. I just shouted for help.”
At first there were no other people around, but “all of a sudden” there were about three other men, possibly including the owner, attempting to remove the animal.
A passerby gave him a lift to the vet but Izzy was “bleeding so profusely” he could hear her choking on her own blood. Her bones had been crushed.
The owners were handed a caution and the dog remains alive and living nearby.
“It was dangerously out of control,” Parkin says of the XL bully. “I’ve been brought up with dogs all my life. There’s no place for this type of dog in society.”
He welcomes the incoming ban on XL bullies but says he does not think it is enough and it will not work.
He believes the majority of XL bully owners will not be fazed by the ban and will keep their dogs and ignore the new law and regulations.
“The only effective thing that I’ve seen the police doing is turning up and shooting these dogs, which is what I think they should be doing,” Parkin adds.
He was left with significant mental impacts from the attack and was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He received counselling but still struggles with walking dogs, and often rises very early in the morning to avoid other owners. He also carries a dog spray.
Marie Hay’s siberian husky, Naevia, survived a savage attack on the beach in Redcar on the North Yorkshire coast by two XL bullies – but has been left with life-changing injuries. Hay, like Parkin, has also been left with mental scars.
The owner of the dog that attacked seven-year-old Naevia is facing a criminal trial next year.
“We must have only been three minutes and the guy pulls up and basically he’s just got his dogs out of the car. They run down to the bottom of the beach and one starts to run towards Naevia.
“The owner turned to me and said: ‘They’re friendly, don’t worry,’ because I must have pulled a face at the size of the dog.
“But then the first one jumped on Naevia’s chest and just started tearing into her.
“So she was screaming, screaming like a baby. And then the other one just came out of nowhere. The attack lasted about 12 minutes.”
Hay said several people attempted to remove the dogs but were initially unsuccessful. They attempted to lift the dogs by the legs and her 20-year-old daughter was bitten, as were other people who intervened.
The owner eventually placed a harness on one of them and put it in the car, while Hay had to walk the other dog back to the car on a lead.
Naevia lost 83% of her blood. “She was bleeding to death on the beach … she had hundreds of bite marks all over, she had an incision that ripped her chest open.
“She had to have between eight and 10 operations. She’s now in kidney failure because of the stress that it caused on her kidneys. She had to have two blood transfusions.”
Hay said the vet bills were more than £30,000, which she has been able to cover through donations on a fundraising website.
Like Parkin, Hay struggles to go out for walks now, due to the stress caused by the incident.
“I carry a full kit that I’ve made myself, it’s got a rape alarm, a couple of extra dog leads … I’m constantly in fear.”
Hay says she is “100%” supportive of the new ban. She says she accepts that a dog’s behaviour is partly down to the owners but is confident the breed plays a part too.
