A WOMAN was bitten when she tried to rescue her dog which was being attacked by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

Blackburn magistrates heard her dog was so badly injured it had to be put down.

And a district judge warned Terence Norton that if there was any further incident involving his dogs they would be destroyed.

Norton, 71, of Chatburn Park Avenue, Brierfield, admitted being in charge of two dogs dangerously out of control which resulted in injury to Jan Bailey. He was fined £200 and ordered to pay £500 compensation, £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge.

District Judge James Clarke also made a contingent destruction order which requires the dogs to be kept on a lead and muzzled in public, always to be walked by more than one person and the owner must take out third party insurance on the dogs.

Parveen Akhtar, prosecuting, said Mrs Bailey was walking between Reedley Road and Quaker Bridge with her dog, Judy, on the lead, when she saw the two Staffordshire Bull Terriers running towards her.

Both dogs attacked her pet, one taking it by the neck and the other its stomach. She told how she was “petrified” and tried to pick her dog up. As she did she was bitten on the hands and forced to drop Judy.

The terriers got hold of her again and were ragging her from side to side when Mrs Bailey saw Norton emerge from nearby woodland.

He eventually managed to get both dogs off and put them on leads by which time Mrs Bailey had wrapped her dog in her coat and clambered onto a wooden platform to keep out of their way.

Mrs Bailey carried Judy the two miles to a veterinary surgery in Barrowford but there was no vet in duty. Her friend phoned Norton, who had provided his details, and he and his wife came and collected them and took them to a vet’s in Colne.

“Unfortunately, due to her injuries, Judy had to be put down,” said Miss Akhtar.

In a victim impact statement Mrs Bailey described Judy as an “elderly and beloved” dog.

She said she had suffered bites to both hands and one of the joints on a little finger was nearly bitten through.

She said before the attack she would walk her dog four or five times a week and this was part of her life. She said she had grown up with dogs and owned them all her life but said she was now scared of them.

Norton, who was not represented, said when he heard a commotion he rushed to the scene.

He said he didn’t think the dogs had attacked Mrs Bailey but accepted she had been bitten in the course of trying to save her pet.

“It was a massive surprise this actually happened at all,” he said. “As far as I am concerned they don’t pose a threat to humans.”

He said he had been keeping Staffordshire Bull Terriers since the mid ‘70s and had never had any third party problems with either dogs or people.

He said he had paid the Colne vet’s bill of £277.