Elderly border collie Belle savaged by Rhodesian ridgeback in Netherton

Jun 29 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Elderly border collie Belle savaged by Rhodesian ridgeback in Netherton

GENTLE border collie Belle was savaged by Rhodesian ridgebacks in an unprovoked attack.

Owner Anne Martin screamed in horror as her elderly dog was picked up and flung to the ground in woods between Netherton and Armitage Bridge.

Fifteen-year-old Belle – who is deaf and half-blind – suffered an eight-inch wound in her ribcage.

Anne, 57, said: “I was just walking Belle through the woods as I do every morning when two ridgebacks appeared and just set on her. They picked her up and hurled her to the ground.

“I screamed and then they ran off.”

But the vicious dogs soon returned with a third ridgeback.

Anne said: “Three of them appeared to finish the job, but I screamed like a banshee and they ran off.”

Anne is angry that the ridgebacks’ owner did not come to see what had happened.

She said: “I didn’t see their owner but I heard her whistling and shouting to her dogs. She must have heard me scream and she must have heard Belle who was making a terrible noise.

“The ridgebacks obviously went back to her after attacking Belle, but she didn’t put them on a lead. And she didn’t come to check what had happened, which upsets me.