A DANGEROUS dog was ordered to be destroyed and its owner given 200 hours community service after an attack left a family pet with horrific injuries and its owner in hospital.

On Tuesday Stevenage magistrates ordered an American bulldog to be put to sleep after its owner, Jaqueline Peters, 47, of Mandeville, Stevenage, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog.

The court heard how on December 4, the four-year-old animal attacked a border collie being walked on the water meadow by Goddard End in Stevenage.

The prosecution said the tan and white heavily-built animal ran across the meadow towards the collie and after sniffing around it, clamped its jaws on its shoulder and chest, pinning it to the ground. It bit the dog again after momentarily releasing it.

The resulting injuries to the collie needed 26 days of veterinary treatment, costing over �3,000.

The owner of the 12-year-old collie, who had been walking the dog with his wife, was bitten in the face by the bulldog as he tried to separate the animals. He was taken to hospital for puncture wound treatment.

The condemned dog had been the subject of an earlier borough council animal control agreement to be muzzled, but was without a muzzle and off the lead on the day of the attack.

Peters, who declined legal representation, said she was a responsible owner who had adopted the dog from the RSPCA.

She told the court that she had been traumatised by the actions of a neighbour who had hit her dog repeatedly with a heavy torch after hearing the attack take place. “It was horrible,” she said. She added that she had not realised her dog had bitten the other owner at the time.

Investigating officer, neighbourhood team sergeant Jim Moat, said the bulldog had a history of terrorising dog owners in the area.

“In all my community police experience, it has been the most damaging,” he said. “The impact on the wider community took me aback.”

He thanked members of the public for coming forward in this case and added that officers will do all they can to target irresponsible dog owners in the town.

As well as a community order in the high range of magistrates’ powers, Peters was also ordered to pay �700 compensation for vet bills, �300 injury compensation to the injured owner and �85 prosecution costs. She was banned from owning or being in control of a dog for five years.

Police also served an ASBO order on Peters, which will be heard at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on January 25.