Man arrested on suspicion of possessing dangerous dogs

POLICE investigating a dog attack in which a tiny King Charles Spaniel was mauled by a suspected pit bull raided a nearby flat yesterday and seized two animals inside.

Specially-trained officers forced their way into a property in Hathersage Court, Newington Green, at 11.30am on Wednesday (29).

They arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of possession of dangerous dogs and took two dogs away to be examined to determine whether they are a banned breed.

The raid was part of an ongoing investigation into an incident in Hathersage Court in August, when a two-year-old King Spaniel called Toby was left fighting for its life after it was attacked by another dog.

Toby only survived thanks to the brave actions of builder Shaun Reeves, who sprayed the suspected pitbull with a fire extinguisher, forcing it to unclamp its jaws from round the neck of its victim.

Police Constable Jennie Young, of the Mildmay safer neighbourhood team, said: “We knocked on the door of the flat but there was no answer so we forced entry. Inside we found a man asleep and two suspected pit bulls. One of the dogs is suspected of being involved in the attack on the spaniel last month.

“The man was arrested and has been bailed until November 22.”

Wednesday’s raid followed another a week earlier, also in Hathersage Court, in which a man climbed out of a window and fled down five stories of scaffolding to escape police. Officers arrested his ex-girlfriend and seized two dogs in that raid.

“We think the the man who fled in last week’s raid might be breeding pitbulls and selling them to kids on the estate,” said PC Young. “We think he might have sold one to the guy arrested in the latest raid and that the dogs are probably related.

“We now have to wait for the tests to come back to find out whether these are pitbulls, but dangerous dogs is one of our ward priorities in Mildmay and we have got warrants out for more raids coming up.”