A YOUNG dog was left at death’s door after it was savaged by two other dogs.

Sixteen-month-old border collie Bob needed a five-hour operation and is still being looked after by vets after he was attacked by two Staffordshire bull terriers.

He had his chest torn open, suffered a punctured lung and bite wounds to his legs and lost a large amount of blood in the incident in Rawthorpe on Monday.

Owner Eric Riding, 72, said: “I haven’t been able to sleep since. He’s my dog, my pet and it might sound silly but I have cried about it.”

Mr Riding, of Rawthorpe, was walking Bob on Rawthorpe High School playing fields when he saw the other two dogs a distance away.

He said: “They didn’t bark, they just ran over to where we were and laid into Bob, one at the back and one at the front.

“He was crying and screaming out.

“I had a walking stick and I started braying them with it, but they wouldn’t let go.

“They must have been at it for two minutes.”

He said the dogs’ owner came over and started kicking them, but it was some time before they relented.

He added: “Bob crawled away. I tried to pick him up, but realised he didn’t want to be touched, so we had to walk the 200 yards home.”

Mr Riding took Bob to Calder Vets in Dewsbury, where vet Adele Trott carried out a five-hour operation to clean the wounds, repair his chest and give him a blood transfusion.

Ms Trott added: “It’s a bit too early to say if he’s going to be OK. The next few days will be crucial. There’s a big risk of post-operative infection.”

She said cases of dog attacks on small dogs were becoming more common, but attacks on dogs as big as Bob were relatively rare.

The vet’s bill for Bob’s treatment has already topped £1,000.

Keith Wood, a neighbour of Mr Riding, said his dog had been attacked by the same animals at the weekend, but he managed to scare them away before they did any serious damage.

He said: “Something needs to be done about them.”

Both men called the police but were told the force did not deal with such incidents, as they are civil rather than criminal matters.

A Kirklees Council spokeswoman said the dog wardens were dealing with the matter.