Diabetic savaged in dog attack (From St Helens Star)

Diabetic Anthony Hall savaged in dog attack

11:35am Thursday 19th July 2012 in News Exclusive By Andrew Kilmurray, News editor

A MAN was left with a catalogue of horrific injuries after he was the victim of a frenzied dog attack.

Anthony Hall, 52, suffered broken bones in his foot, a fractured toe and lost one and a half pints of blood after he was mauled by an English bull terrier. He also broke his hip as he struck the floor when the animal set upon him outside flats in Dorothy Street, Thatto Heath.

Anthony, a diabetic who suffers from heart and lung problems, had stepped in to prevent his Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Crystal, being attacked.

After undergoing three operations in Whiston Hospital – including a skin graft - he is now recovering at home.

Shocking details of the incident, which happened at about 3.30am on Tuesday, June 12, emerged this week as his wife, Margaret, 56, who witnessed the attack, spoke to the St Helens Star.

She said: “I think it was trying to get our dog and Anthony got between them. It was hell being there. I have never seen anything like it.

“The dog was raging and raging, like something had turned it. The floor was like a sea of red, there was that much blood coming from his foot.

“It final stopped when our neighbour threw a bucket of water over it.

“Anthony has been in hospital four weeks. It’s been a bad time for us. Every time I have to think about it I get upset.”

Police responded to the call that night but initial searches for the English bull terrier, which had ran away following the attack, were unsuccessful. However, it was later tracked down and destroyed.

A Merseyside Police spokesman added that a woman, the 41-year-old partner of the dog's owner, was arrested on suspicion of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place.

She was questioned at a local police station and bailed.

The spokesman added: “The dog responsible was traced by officers and written permission was given by the owner - a 47-year-old man - to hand it over to the police for it to be humanely destroyed.”