A Bridge of Earn woman sobbed in the dock after being found guilty of allowing her pet staffie to carry out a savage attack on her neighbour.
Pauline Reid, 32, of Newbigging Farm Cottages, Balmanno, had been the owner of the Staffordshire/labrador cross for just six months when it leapt a garden fence and bit Margaret McLeod on the hip and arm.
The retired property developer broke down in the witness box when she recalled how she was left in a pool of blood when Reid’s pet jumped the 3ft high fence and attacked her.
She told Perth Sheriff Court she was “petrified, terrified and shocked” as the powerful dog spent more than two minutes with its teeth locked on to her flesh, trying to drag her to the ground.
Health studies student Reid now faces having the staffie, named Ollie, destroyed after being found guilty of allowing her dog to be dangerously out of control at an address in Douglas Court, Perth, on June 16 last year.
Ms McLeod said the “strong and sturdy” dog attacked her as she began unlocking a gate at her property.
She said: “I was just reaching up to unlock the snib when I saw the dog just fly over the fence at me.
“It caught my hip in its jaws. I tried to lift my leg to ward it off but I couldn’t so I swung my bag at it, but it tore that away from me.
“All the while I was shouting, screaming and crying.
“I don’t know how long it was until he let go but then he went to the other side and latched on to my left arm.
“He was pulling me round but I had the sense to realise that if he pulled me to the ground I would have been very vulnerable.
“I was terrified.”
She said the attack only ended when Reid and her mother, Sandra Milne, climbed the fence and pulled the dog off her.
Sheriff Fiona Tait told Reid: “In assessing the evidence I found Ms McLeod to be an impressive witness.
“She had been fearful of the dog on previous occasions when it was in the garden.
“While in your care, the dog escaped and carried out an attack of some length.”
Sentence on Reid was deferred for reports.