CONCERNED dog walkers have issued a warning to other owners after their beagle was attacked by another canine in Jersey Farm.

Poppy, a beagle belonging to Jacqueline Voyce and Alec Monaghan, was attacked on open space on the estate by a brown pit bull-type dog and suffered multiple injuries which required emergency veterinary treatment.

The vet found a number of puncture wounds on two-year-old Poppy including quite a deep gash on her rump, and she has been on a course of antibiotics since the attack earlier this month.

Alec had taken Poppy for a walk on her lead on the fields next to Richmond Walk in Jersey Farm when the other dog, which Jacqueline described as muscly and either a Staffy or pit bull type animal, ran up to Poppy and grabbed her by the neck.

Alec seized Poppy and put her on his shoulders but the dog, which was called Roxy, still kept jumping up at her until its owner, described as elderly and limping, managed to pull it away and drove off in an older-style blue Vauxhall Corsa.

Jacqueline said Alec had been left with a minor bite on his hand and very shaken by what had happened. She added: “There are so many lovely dogs in our local area and we wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else.”

Police were called after the attack and they looked around the area to see if they could find the car.

A police spokesman said: “Dog owners that allow their pets to be dangerously out of control in a public place such as happened here could be breaking the law.

“All types of dog can be considered dangerously out of control if they injure another person’s animal, or if the owner of an animal believes that they could be injured if they intervened in such an attack.”

He added: “Those found to be breaking the law face a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and in certain circumstances, they could be banned from keeping a dog and their animal could be destroyed.”