Renewed call for compulsory microchipping after guide dog mauled

By Michael Baggs | January 17, 2012 7:25 AM

A call has been made for the compulsory microchipping of all British dogs following a horrific attack on a guide dog outside the home it lives with it's owner.

The attack on totally blind Kirsten Barrett and her Labrador Norman were attacked outside their home in Corntown, Bridgend was witnessed by her seven year old daughter as they left home to walk to her school bus stop. All three have been left traumatised, Norman however has lost part of his ear and following the attack suffered injuries to his sides and legs that left him requiring emergency surgery.

The two dogs who attacked them, a rottweiler and a Staffordshire bull terrier cross, are believed to have been dumped by their owners. Kirsten said "Apparently the dogs had been hanging around our street since about ten o'clock the previous night. The rottweiler just jumped on Norman, and started biting and shaking him. I told my daughter to carry on walking away, so she didn't get hurt, while I tried to get in between them. But it was too strong, and I got bitten on the hand and leg as well. Eventually I managed to get Norman into a neighbour's house, but even then this dog was flying at the glass trying to get at him." Kirsten goes on to detail how her neighbours helped save them "One chased the dogs away with a stick, and another rushed Norman and me to the vet. It could have been much worse, but even so I'm angry and frightened about the sort of person who'd dump dogs like this on the street."

Believe it or not attacks on guide dogs in the UK average seven a month and each year four guide dogs are so badly injured they have to either be put down or retired. With compulsory microchipping, an improved culture of responsible ownership and the stamping out of back street breeding it's believed that attacks like this could one day be a thing of the past. It's shocking and say to say, but of the 147 attacks between June 2010 and this past December, James White of the GDBA says that he's unaware of a single police prosecution.

Image source: flickr user smerikal

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