Vicious Edmonton Staffie attack leaves dog fighting for life and owners injured (From Enfield Independent)

Vicious Edmonton Staffie attack leaves dog fighting for life and owners injured

2:57pm Thursday 31st May 2012 in News By David Hardiman, Reporter

An Edmonton mother and daughter were dragged across the ground in a vicious dog attack that left her pet near death in hospital.

Janet Tingling, 53, was walking her Bichon Frisé, Daisy, and mastiff, Boo, with her daughter, Ashleigh Higgins, 30, in a small park off Kimberley Road at 9pm on Tuesday when two Staffordshire bull terriers, who were not on a lead, attacked them.

The two dogs locked their jaws into seven-year-old Daisy, before both Ms Tingling and Ms Higgins were dragged along the ground trying to stop the attack. They received bite wounds that needed hospital treatment.

Daisy is recovering in a veterinary hospital after suffering six bite wounds and a four-inch tear to her stomach that narrowly missed her abdomen, which if bitten vets said would mean she had to be put down. Boo is recovering at home on antibiotics.

Ms Tingling, of Middleham Road, said: “It was absolutely terrifying and it was really horrible to see in front of your own eyes. If I had been on my own she wouldn’t have stood a chance because those dogs were so strong.

“The owner didn’t do anything to stop it and we thought it must be safe because she’d taken them off the lead.

“My knee is still a bit sore, but we’re more worried about Daisy because she’s now going to need quite a lot of care. We’re just lucky she’s still alive.”

Her other daughter, Maxeen Crowley, 22, who suffers from cerebral palsy, said she usually walked the dogs with her mother and fears what could have happened if she had been there.

She added: “It’s really an incredibly scary thought. My mum doesn’t usually leave me at home alone, but if I’d have been there I would have been killed.”

Last week, Edmonton MP Andy Love called for a dog control scheme to be introduced in England and called for a clear timetable for tougher measures on irresponsible owners to be brought in.

And Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes backed new sentencing guidelines recommending at least six months in jail for those who fail to stop their dog harming others after his dog, Cholmeley, was attacked in Arnos Park on May 13 by a Staffordshire bull terrier which was not on a lead.

Ms Tingling called on the Government to do more to punish owners who refuse to keep their dogs on a lead in parks.

She said: “The owners need more education and dangerous dogs should be put down because they are dangerous full stop.

“How can you have a dog that you can’t let off a lead because it will attack someone? That’s not right.”

A petition, backed by the Enfield Independent, was handed to Prime Minister David Cameron last year, calling for stiffer penalties for owners of banned dogs and swifter justice in attack cases.