Strays brutally attack family pet

IT was a “horrific” Christmas night Rebecca Cherrie never wants to remember.

But the scars on her beloved dog’s face will never let her forget.

The North Rockhampton woman and her two children were fast asleep after a big day of opening presents and eating food when she woke to the sound of a dog fight.

She went outside to find two stray dogs in her High Street yard, with one of them attacking her pet.

Her dog, a Staffordshire cross, was on a chain and could not get away from the stray, which had latched on to its face and neck.

“I couldn’t get him off my dog,” she said.

“There was blood everywhere, but it wasn’t all my dog’s blood.”

Cherrie described the two roaming dogs as “big” – one a bull mastiff cross and the other a Great Dane.

“My dog was brutally wounded,” she said.

“That could have been one of my kids.”

Cherrie wanted to warn people in the area to keep an eye out for the dogs and wanted the owners to come forward. “I want them to come forward because the dog involved would have a lot of injuries too,” she said.

A council spokeswoman said council compliance officers attended the property on Christmas night but the stray dog involved in the fight had left the premises and patrols failed to locate it.

“An officer investigated a lead on the potential location of the offending dog but wasn’t successful in locating the animal,” she said.

“Officers will continue to patrol the area.”