Jail sentence for man whose dog attacked a police horse
A man who was walking his flatmate’s American pit bull-type dog when it savaged a police horse has been jailed.
Sarraj Ahmed, 26, of Galsworth Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, admitted being in charge of a dangerous dog and damaging the horse.
He was jailed for four months and banned from keeping dogs for 10 years by magistrates in Manchester, a local newspaper has reported.
The magistrates also ordered that the dog should be destroyed.
In the case on 2 September, the court heard how two mounted police officers were passing a park in Cheetham Hill when the dog escaped and started jumping up at one of the horses.
At one stage, the pit bull locked on to the horse’s muzzle, causing it to buck and rear.
PC Paul Hamer fell off and was badly bruised.
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The attack only stopped when the officer managed to stun the dog with his baton.
The horse sustained serious wounds to its lip, chest, stomach, back legs and hindquarters but has recovered.
Anthony O’Donnell, defending, said Mr Ahmed had been doing a good deed that had gone ‘horribly wrong’.
He had taken the dog for a walk and foolishly let it off the lead.
A charge of damaging the horse, against the dog’s owner 25-year-old Paul Stirland, was withdrawn.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.