A PET needed emergency surgery after it was attacked by another dog.

Grandmother Margaret Perry, of Broughton Close, in the Higher Croft area of Blackburn, said her Yorkshire terrier Bonnie was shaken so badly that the muscles in her legs were torn.

The 57-year-old said her granddaughter, Kelsie, was now too scared to go out in the street.

Margaret said: “Bonnie is a mess. She cannot walk and she has had an emergency operation. The dog tore all the muscles in Bonnie’s leg.

“What if it had have been a child?”

Margaret was walking Bonnie on a lead at around 12.45am on Thursday and had just arrived home when the terrier was grabbed by a cross breed dog, similar to a Japanese Akita, belonging to George Daye who lives on nearby Broughton Close.

She said: “I was just coming back in and, as I put the key in the door, the dog came and snagged Bonnie.

“It came behind her, grabbed her and pulled the lead out of my hand.”

She said she had to hit the dog on the side of the head to make it let go of her pet.

Margaret said she informed the police who told her to report the attack to the dog warden.

She was told she could wait up to 10 days before somebody visits the scene of the attack.

A police spokesman said so-called ‘dog on dog’ attacks would almost always be looked into by the local authority rather than officers.

Margaret said: “The attack was terrifying.

“The grandchildren are coming round the front now instead of the back, they are scared the dog might be hanging around.

“We are frightened to even open the front door and all the neighbours are the same. They are frightened of their kids being out. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Mr Daye admitted he was walking his dog, Lulu, without a lead and said: “She was walking a bit in front of me so I didn’t see what happened exactly.

“If I walk her during the day I always keep her on a lead but this was late at night and I didn’t expect to see anyone.

“She hasn’t ever attacked a dog before that I know of and I have apologised to Margaret and paid for all the veterinary bills.

“Neither the dog warden nor police have been in touch with me about it.”