A Brechin pensioner who allowed her pack of Staffie-cross pets to attack two elderly men has been banned from keeping dogs for 10 years.
Fiona Borders was convicted of three charges under the Dangerous Dogs Act on Friday after a sheriff said the 76-year-old was in “total denial” over the incidents
in Brechin and Montrose earlier this year.
The attacks, described in court as “ferocious and vicious”, led to one man receiving a wound to his hand as he fought to keep the accused’s four dogs at bay.
During the two-day trial, it emerged that Borders was previously the subject of a five-year order banning her from keeping any animals imposed at another Scottish court.
The OAP immediately instructed her solicitor to appeal the conviction when she was found guilty by Sheriff Kevin Veal.
The sheriff said he would not order the destruction of the dogs, which have been in kennels since the incident, and it is understood efforts to rehome them may now be made.
The trial of the 76-year-old was sparked by two attacks on OAPs who had been out walking their dogs in Brechin and Montrose in February.
James Davidson and his springer spaniel Reuben were confronted by the group of Staffordshire crosses while out walking on Montrose’s East Links on February 3.
Just 10 days later, George Johnston and his cocker spaniel Dughall were the victims of a second attack which left the 68-year-old nursing a wound to his hand after he tried to rescue his pet, fearing it would be “torn to bits”.
Police appeals over the attacks sparked a significant public response, including a call from a third victim, Ian Rankin, who was holidaying in Lanzarote around that time.
He had told the Forfar Sheriff Court trial earlier this week of feeling “threatened” after the dogs approached him at lock-up garages in Brechin in the early part of this year.
Sheriff Veal convicted Borders of three charges under the Dangerous Dogs Act after saying he did not believe the accused’s denial that she was present when the incidents occurred.
“The complainers have no axe to grind with Mrs Borders and narrated to the court the circumstances of what happened,” he said. “Bluntly, I find Mrs Borders to be in a state of total denial.
“It’s my view that on these occasions these four dogs, which are substantially of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier breed, were dangerously out of control and the consequence of that was their behaviour towards the other dogs and human beings as narrated in the evidence led by the Crown.
“Because of my view on the matter, I will not order the destruction of the animals concerned, but they will not be returned to Mrs Borders,” said the sheriff, imposing a 10-year dog keeping ban on the accused.
He said it was “quite worrying” to be presented with previous convictions which disclosed a five-year ban on keeping animals imposed at Lanark Sheriff Court in 1999.
In her evidence, Borders had denied being at any of the locations when the offences took place and said she did not allow her pets to run about in public, instead taking them to open fields near Brechin.
The accused, who was described as living in “squalor” during the trial, had been asked how she felt about hearing evidence of the attacks on the two men and their pets.
“Well I’m not happy about that, of course I’m not, but it wasn’t my dogs that did it,” she said.
On the night her pets were seized by police, Borders told The Courier it was Mr Johnston’s “own fault” that he had been confronted by her pets and blamed him for kicking her dogs when they “were just trying to be friendly”.
In summing up, depute fiscal Hannah Kennedy described the wound Mr Johnston sustained as “a vicious bite”.
She added: “These dogs were not playing, it is utter fiction for the accused to describe that as the manner of these dogs on this occasion.
“These dogs were, in my view, dangerously out of control in a public place.”
Of the attack on Mr Davidson, the fiscal added: “This was obviously an alarming and frightening experience and the accused did nothing to stop the attack.
“She doesn’t realise the gravity of her dogs being out of control. She is just living in another world,” the fiscal added.