Thursday, November 9, 2000

Melbourne Australia
by SARAH TIMMS

Watching her six-year-old son being savaged by a pack of pit bull terriers was like viewing a horror movie, the victim's mother said today.

Raquel Douglas, 22, said her son Damien was sitting on the fence between the family home and a neighbor's house in the outer western suburb of Sunshine when the ferocious attack occurred.

She heard a scream, ran outside and leaned over the fence to try to pull her son from the jaws of two adult pit bulls and seven puppies about midday yesterday.

“They grabbed him by the back of his leg and pulled us both over the fence,” Ms Douglas told reporters today.

“We broke the fence as we went over.

“They then proceeded to drag him to the other end of the yard and the big male dog was biting the back of his legs.”

Ms Douglas said her son was covered with all seven puppies.

She said the female dog had her pinned to the fence and was biting the back of her legs as the others were shredding her son.

“I was repeatedly punching her and trying to get to him but I couldn't do it because there were just too many.

“Every time I tried they would just keep going at him.

“I grabbed him and I had him in my arms and they just literally ripped him out from my arms.”

She eventually got the female dog off her, scaled the fence and screamed for help.

Two men working down the road heard her cries and one of them used a piece of exhaust pipe to smash the adult male dog over the head to free the boy.

An ambulance rushed the boy to the Royal Children's Hospital with extensive wounds and today was in a stable condition.

He was expected to spend at least two weeks in hospital.

Ms Douglas' partner, Gary Turner, 24, said Damien had a hole in his backside the size of his fist. Both legs were in splints and he had savage cuts to his legs, arms and body.

Ms Douglas said during the attack, which lasted about 15 minutes, she thought the dogs were going to kill him.

“I want the dogs dead,” she said.

RSPCA president Hugh Wirth said pit bull terriers should not be allowed into Australia and criticised politicians for not heeding long-standing warnings about the dangers of the breed.

Police said no charges would be laid against the dogs' owner in relation to the attack because it had happened in her yard.

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