WARNING: Contains graphics
A Crufts-winning dog breeder could end up behind bars after her dog mauled a visitor and left her with ‘significant’ blood loss.
Margaret Peacock, 69, was convicted by a jury of being in charge of Mako – her Belgian Malinois – who got dangerously out of control and bit a visitor in her home.
Natasha Turner visited Mrs Turner at her home in Farnborough, Hampshire, in February last year to do some odd jobs and to visit her own dog, Bobo, who was staying there when the attack happened.
Sian Beaven, prosecutor, told the Salisbury Crown Court trial that Ms Turner said she had visited Peacock to move the defendant’s bed to another room – so that it would be closer to a wood-burning stove due to the cold.
Describing the incident, she said: ‘It happened very quickly, when we realized things were going wrong I was scared because I didn’t think I was going to get the dog between us.
“It was like someone had a knife, stuck it in your leg and ripped it through with a knife, that’s the only way I can describe it.
‘I was screaming. I cried my eyes out. It was really bad.’
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Ms Turner said Peacock helped her get the dog off but was bitten herself in the process before the defendant managed to put the dog back behind the fence where it was normally kept.
She said Peacock then asked her not to contact police because she feared the dog would be put down and also bought her gifts in an attempt to dissuade her from reporting the incident.
The defendant denied that Mako carried out the attack and told the court that Ms. Turner arrived injured at her front door after being attacked by another unidentified dog elsewhere.
Judge Richard Parkes KC adjourned the case for sentencing on February 3, 2023.
He released Peacock on bail until then and ordered that the Probation Service prepare a report on her.
He told her, “I will bail you out. Please don’t assume that I’m going to bail you out that there isn’t a very real risk of a prison sentence.’
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