Dog owner expresses concern after ‘beautiful little Schnauzer’ dies after being mauled by ‘dangerous’ pitbull

A dog owner has said her father-in-law has been left ‘traumatized’ after a dog attack in which her Schnauzer was fatally wounded.

Jennifer Lewis had to have her dog put down after it was attacked by what is described as ‘a grey and white pitbull’ on the Greenway in Westport last Thursday evening, June 27.

Ms Lewis said the dog was being walked on a lead by two teenage girls before it broke free and attacked her dog, Iris, who was being walked by her 81-year-old father-in-law.

The man rushed the dog to the vet, but it had to be put down due to the severity of its injuries.

Speaking on The Tommy Marren Show on Midwest Radio, Ms Lewis warned that the dog had developed ‘a taste for blood’ and said it posed a safety risk to the community.

She cited regulations which dictate that pitbull owners must have their dogs muzzled at all times and kept ‘on a strong leash not more than 2 metres in length when in a public place’.

_{Jennifer Lewis with her husband Pat holding a photo of her beloved dog Iris, a Miniature Schnauzer that was fatally attacked by a pitbull dog breed on the Westport Greenway on the June 27. Photo provided via owner to Conor McKeown}

“This dog, they won’t see the difference between another dog and a small child and our fear is that this little dog will attack again. We will never get our beautiful little Schnauzer back, and that’s something that we have to live with,” she said.

“But if we can ensure that this dog never has a chance to attack any other family dog or no other family has to go through the loss of that, or any small child is fatally attacked.”

Ms Lewis appealed for the dog’s owner, or someone who knows the owner, to come forward in order to ‘get this dangerous animal taken off the streets’.

“We have lost our beautiful little Schnauzer. Will they be able to live with themselves if the next attack that that pitbull makes is on a child? There’s blood on their hands at the moment of the attack on our dog, but that will attack again,” she said, adding that the Greenway was ‘no longer a safe space’ for families, dogs and children to walk due to the dog’s presence in the community.

Anyone who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) of the incident and was travelling in the area at the time, is asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardaí.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Westport Garda Station on 098 50230, the Garda Confidential line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

Signs have also been erected at the Greenway appealing for the public to come forward with information to Westport Gardaí.