Dog warning after young rider and woman savaged by pack

A man has been sentenced and three dogs put down after two attacks at an equestrian yard

- ELEANOR JONES

THE mother of a young girl who was savaged by a pack of Labradors at an eventing yard weeks after they did the same to a woman delivering hay wants to raise awareness of the devastating consequences if dogs are not under control.

John Hardy, 75, of Coombeland Farm in Devon was given a suspended prison sentence, at Exeter Crown Court on 13 January, for two offences of having dogs dangerously out of control and causing injury.

The court heard the pack had attacked two visitors to the yard within a few weeks, early last year; a woman delivering hay, then the young girl.

"The dogs attacked like a pack of hounds at the kill," her mother told H&H.

She had taken both her daughters to see a horse, for her older child. She was talking to Hardy with the girls nearby.

"Through the arch, eight Labradors came flat out," she said. "They jumped at her, got her on the floor and attacked.

"They wouldn't let go. They bit me, but he casually got them off; he showed no urgency. My daughter had 36 bite wounds. He's never apologised.