After being viciously attacked by a dog on a back road near Mylor last week, the 19-year old victim has told the Packet her story.Suzy was driving alone when she spotted a dog in the middle of the road. Fearing it would be injured, she stopped and got out of the car.
Bad mistake:
There is no way to know how long the Staffie - a female, it would turn out later - kept a hold of Suzy. It could have been seconds, it could have been minutes. One thing that Suzy is sure of, however, is that while she struggled - frightened and alone - against this animal that had its jaws locked around her leg, not one, but two cars drove past her.
“I wouldn't expect them to get out,” Suzy said. “But at least pull over and stop. I was in the middle of the road.”Well, we’ve been here before, haven’t we? Albeit with humans…
After a five hour hunt, the police found the dog. They were anxious to pick it up that same night, before Mylor Primary School - just a mile and a half down road from where the attack took place at 10.15pm - opened the following morning.
Because news travel fast in small villages, and to put people's minds at rest, the police uploaded a note to social networking website Facebook to say the dog had been captured and destroyed.Hurrah! Yes?
Not entirely:
This not only provoked horror and sympathy at the extent of Suzy's injuries, but also stimulated a backlash from people claiming she had “tormented” the dog that attacked her./doublefacepalm Let's hear it for the people Scaryduck tagged 'commentards':
“I don't want people to be annoyed with me because the dog was put down,” Suzy said.
“People are saying on Facebook and things that I tormented it. But I was pretty defenceless when I was stood out there in the dark.”You really should ignore the Facebook trolls, Suzy. And more to the point, so should the authorities. But, incredibly enough, they don't:
Sergeant Gary Watts, from Falmouth Police Station, has put out an appeal to find the owners of the dog.
The police have a photograph of it, which they sent to Suzy for identification following its capture, but are unwilling to release it to the public as they fear it will provoke yet more backlash from dog lovers.I…
I just…
Savour that - the police have information that might help to solve a crime and they are too afraid to use it.
Presumably the police don't want the argument about whether they should have destroyed the dog.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have acted correctly and, considering the difficulty of finding a dog in that complex landscape, they've done very well indeed to find before a child was attacked.
Police scared? Come off it. It is when they do what they ought to be doing that it should make the news.
ReplyDeleteTormented it? I'd have teased it something rotten if it had bitten me...
ReplyDelete"Presumably the police don't want the argument about whether they should have destroyed the dog."
ReplyDeleteBut without the information, they'll be unlikely to find the owner responsible...
"Tormented it? I'd have teased it something rotten if it had bitten me..."
I'd have driven over the thing - twice!