Judge orders destruction of dangerous dog

THE Staffordshire Bull Terrier who savaged his owner's former partner must be put down, a judge has ruled.

The dog, Fudge, attacked Andrew Gardner during a row with mother-of-three Laura Wain on her doorstep in http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/mytownstafford">Stafford, leaving him with "horrific" injuries.

A jury cleared Wain of deliberately setting Fudge on him, but convicted her of owning a dog dangerously out of control.

The charge obliges judges to order destruction, unless the animal is found not to be a danger to the public at large.

But Judge Paul Glenn told a weeping Wain: "This dog is quite clearly a threat to public safety."

The judge gave Wain a 12 month community order with 80 hours' unpaid work and banned her from keeping dogs for 10 years.

He told her: "You haven't got a clue how to control this dog. You didn't accept the dog was dangerous, you said you wanted it back. It's cost the taxpayer almost £2,000 to keep this dog since the offence."

Wain, aged 26, of Edison Road, http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/mytownstafford">Stafford, denied assaulting Mr Gardner, causing him actual bodily harm and owning a dog dangerously out of control.

Mr Gardner bought Fudge for her as a present, but he became jealous and used to kick and punch it, she said.

After they split in March last year, he came round to her house to give her some money for their children. They got into an argument and as she went to shut the door, it flew open and Fudge bolted out.

The dog chased Mr Gardner down an alley and attacked him. He suffered a number of serious bites to his arms and head and spent a night in hospital.

Three-year-old Fudge is now in police custody in kennels. The dog attacked Mr Gardner once previously, in January last year, when it bit him on the chest, but Wain told police she wanted the dog back when the case was over.

Chris Clark, defending, said: "The dog doesn't constitute a danger to the public. This dog has only bitten one person and that is Mr Gardner."

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