Sheriff tells court collie has to be put down

An out-of-control mutt bit a boy of 11 and forced a dog walker to run for cover after it began circling her in the street.

William Shea, 61, was in control of the border collie when it plunged its fangs into the youngster’s leg as he walked to a pal’s.

But he last night pleaded for his pet’s life to be spared after a sheriff ordered it to be put down.

Shea insists his wife – who was in a coma for 18 months after a fall at work – should be allowed to keep the beast.

He said: “I told the judge that my wife has been in a coma and if they take Mr Wolf she will end up back in a coma.

“It’s disgusting to take Mr Wolf away from Anne, she will be completely distraught if they take him.

“She’s had him for nine years. They can’t take him off her. It will destroy her.”

The boy’s jeans were coated in saliva after it bit him yards from Shea’s home in Renfrew’s Oxford Road.

And it even bared its teeth and snarled at a vet trying to earn it a stay of execution.

Shea broke down at Paisley Sheriff Court when he was ordered to pay for the animal to be euthanised after admitting two attacks.

Fiscal depute John Penman told how the beast grabbed the schoolboy as he walked to play with friends.

He said: “He left his house to go to his friend’s to play football.

“He left his house and walked out the garden, turned right onto the pavement and stopped at the electric box to check if his friend was home.

“He felt what he described as a ‘bunch of pins going really far’ into his skin and a pinch to the side of his knee.

“When he looked down, there was a dog called Wolf.

“The man who owns Wolf approached and asked if he was okay.

“The dog was on a lead, the man was holding it.

“The boy carried on walking to his friend’s, he said his leg was ‘sore’ and he was ‘kind of limping’. He checked and his leg was bleeding.”

Wheelchair- bound Shea claimed his dog attacked the lad because it “obviously thought” he was “going to hit” him last August and was “overly-protective” of him.

He begged for the dog to be allowed into court and claimed it was a “friendly border collie” and would “probably lick you to death”.

But his plea was in vain after it was revealed the nine- year- old animal also rounded on Barbara Ann MacMillan, 61.

It confronted her as she took her own dog for a morning walk and she had to run for shelter in a nearby garden – just months after biting the youngster.

Mr Penman told how the second attack took place in the same street.

He added: “Fearing for her and the dog’s safety, she crossed the road to avoid the collie. She was aware the dog had temperamental problems.

“The collie approached and circled the woman and her dog and began acting aggressively and snarled.”

Police later spotted Shea looking for the pet in the street near his home, before it walked into his front garden on January 5.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew insisted the animal had to be destroyed unless he could be convinced it was not a danger to the public.

But defence lawyer Sidra Ali revealed it had to be muzzled after it turned nasty on a vet microchipping it in a bid to avoid a death order.

She said: “Mr Shea has accepted the dog did bite the boy.

“If there was grave concerns, the dog should have been removed from his care.”

The court also heard the dog had savaged a dog warden in a separate attack in 2014.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew fined Shea £350 and ordered the dog to be put down, but would not issue an order banning him from keeping dogs in the future.

He said: “I regret I cannot be satisfied the dog would not present a danger to the public.

“I have in mind the absolutely devastating affect this will have on your wife.

“I do not have discretion as far as Wolf is concerned.”