Update - Friday 16/9/2011

The first thing I have got to say is a massive "thank you" to everyone who has got in touch. There have been several comments left here, but the number of emails of support has been amazing, 60+ at the last count. That in itself has cheered mum up immeasurably. And the things people have done for us have been unbelievable - everything from helpful suggestions through to people who have taken up the cudgel on our behalf, making calls to and sending emails to the relevant people in the police and the local authority, and calling me and talking me through complaints procedures; and everything from suggesting good ways to treat mum's dog's wounds through to posting me homeopathic remedies to help mum's bone healing. Some of these people I have met at my son's gigs etc, but many are people who I have never even spoken to before who have gone out of their way to help. I have tried to thank everyone individually, and I hope there is nobody I have missed in doing this, but I would also like to say thank you again to everyone who has been in touch - you have all been unbelievable, and it really does restore your faith in human nature.

In terms of what has been happening: firstly and most importantly both mum and dog are doing well. As well as keeping herself fit and healthy, a polite way of describing mum could perhaps be "stubborn"! She has amazed doctors and physios, and has actually now come home (at least a week earlier than the doctors thought, and earlier than any of the other patients on her ward who are a lot younger and had similar ops much earlier than her). OK, maybe it was more like "discharged herself" because she was just so desperate to get out to look after her dog, but they agreed in the end ...

Toby the greyhound is also doing incredibly well considering his age. He is still obviously in a lot of pain when he walks, but his wounds are healing well. He is still not eating, but I have found that if you smear a mix of chicken and pate on his fur he then proceeds to lick it off to clean himself up, and eventually (very eventually!!) you can get sufficient food down him that way ...

With the help and support of many of you I ended up involving the local MP, Jon Cruddas, who said he was going to be taking the matter up with the Borough Commander; the local paper, who have been incredibly supportive; and I have also now made a formal complaint about the handling of the case to the Professional Standards Department at Scotland Yard. And yesterday (Thursday), thanks to all the pressure which has been put on them, I heard that the police are now going to be opening up a proper criminal investigation into the matter. A week too late, of course, especially in terms of things like evidential photos, tracing witnesses etc., but at least something is now going to happen. It was the reporter from the local paper who told me this (I heard from the police a couple of hours later), which I guess indicates their priorities here, but fantastic news nonetheless.

Anyway, at about noon yesterday I got a call from an incredibly helpful sergeant from the Safer Neighbourhoods team. He was really friendly and really supportive, and at least now I know I have got someone in the police who I can talk to if I need to; he really couldn't have been more helpful. I have yet to hear from anyone else following this up, but at least I know that the wheels are now in motion.

But, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, it should never have come to this. It shouldn't take this much time and effort, with so much help and support from so many of you, to have got to the stage where the police are finally doing what they should have done a week ago. The investigating officer seems to have had some sort of underlying agenda, and the concept of serving the public (or stakeholder relationship management as it is no doubt called these days) until yesterday seemed to have passed everyone by. In particular, for the duty Inspector to refuse to come down to have a two minute conversation with me the day after the attack while my mum was in surgery was, in my opinion, disgraceful behaviour. I accept that he was under no statutory obligation to do so, but I would have thought common human decency would have dictated that he should have; another outdated concept I guess. The desk officer at Romford police station who was dealing with me couldn't have been kinder and more helpful, and she called him at least once and went up to see him twice, the second time (at my insistence) taking my phone with her to show him the pictures of mum's injuries. And he still refused to come to talk to me, or to even consider reviewing the file again, and from her demeanour when she returned I got the impression that he had probably also expressed his displeasure at being disturbed again.

And of course, I have concerns that the investigation may have been damaged by this entirely avoidable delay. As far as I am aware no witness details were taken by the officer attending, as in their opinion it was simply "no action necessary". Evidential photos of mum's injuries were not taken despite my requesting on at least two occasions. Nobody has yet visited the other dog's owner to check her dog's injuries (after all, according to her statement the two dogs had a fight, so it must have injuries), or indeed to check if it is a banned breed. And still nobody has, even a week later, asked my mum for her version of events.

But anyway: let's end this on a positive note. Just a massive "thank you" once again to everyone who has been so incredibly kind and generous. You are all wonderful, and I genuinely don't know what I would have done without you all.

This is officially NOT a dangerous dog, OK?

Friday 16th September - thank you everyone for all your help and support. I have posted an update, please click here

My 80 year old mother was out walking her 14 year old greyhound on a lead in a local park in Rainham, Essex at about 3.30pm on Thursday 8th September when it was attacked by a large fighting dog, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier or similar, running loose with its owners in pursuit. It knocked her flying, and attacked her greyhound. Mum is now in Queen's Hospital, Romford with a broken hip, broken wrist, and bad bruising and lacerations from the bite injuries she suffered. She had surgery on Friday to have a plate inserted to repair her hip (it was quite a complex fracture).  No surgery was needed for her broken wrist, but both arms are in casts at the moment, the left because of the fracture and the right because of severe bruising and lacerations to her other arm from dog bites.

Her greyhound has survived fairly major surgery to stitch up his bite wounds, and I brought him home on Saturday evening, but he is not eating and so is returning to the vets today. He lost some teeth in the attack too and we are hopeful that a sore mouth is the reason he is not eating and not internal injuries he has suffered.

I have put some pictures of the bite injuries to my mum's hands at the bottom of this page.  They are at the bottom of the page for a reason; please don't scroll down to the bottom if you are squeamish. And please bear in mind that in the overall scheme of things these are the superficial injuries; these will heal but the fractures are what are likely to cause long-term problems for her.

And my real problem with all of this?  The owner of the dangerous dog didn't want the police called, but she needn't have worried - THE POLICE ARE REFUSING TO TAKE ANY FURTHER ACTION IN THIS CASE BECAUSE, IN THEIR OPINION, "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT"!!! 

So how have these modern-day Poirot's managed to come to this conclusion?  Simple - my mum was obviously in no fit state to make a statement at the time, since she was laying on the ground with a broken hip, broken wrist, severe bruising, bleeding profusely, and being dealt with by ambulance staff.  So they did what every sensible investigating officer would do, and simply took the attacking dog's owner's word that what actually happened was that her dog was under control on a lead at the time, and that the two dogs got into a fight as they passed each other; my mum was injured when she tried to intervene. This is of course complete nonsense; the dog charged across the park to attack my mum's dog. (Please remember we are talking about a neutered 14 year old (that's 90+ years old in dog years) dog here, purportedly shaping up to a large, young fighting dog.  Apparently the owner even claimed it was my mum's own dog which bit her).   Mum says there were a couple of six-ish year old children with the owner, and they were chasing the dog with the owner further behind, so she thinks the owner may have let the children walk the dog and they lost control of it.  Obviously there is no way of knowing if that is true or not, but it would certainly seem to fit the circumstances better - I would have trouble holding a big fighting dog which decided it wanted to attack another dog, and a six year old child would have no chance whatsoever.  But I always thought that the police were obliged to at least listen to both sides of a story before making a decision; as much as I hate to cast aspersions, the owner of a dangerous dog which has just attacked someone may well have reasons why they feel it expedient to give a police officer a version of events which suits them rather than, er, the truth.

I spent an hour and a half in Romford police station on Friday afternoon while I was waiting for mum to come out of surgery trying to talk to someone, but the duty Inspector was "too busy" to talk to me, so I have now had to resort to filing a formal complaint about their handling of the incident (to which, surprise surprise, I have had no response yet).  The officer attending (a Community Support Officer, no less) made a report based on the other dog owner's version of events; the duty Sergeant accepted "no further action required" on the basis of that report; and because the Sergeant has made that decision the Inspector is not interested either - a real Catch 22 situation. In the meantime nobody from the police has so far had the courtesy to even ask my mum for her version of events, and nobody has even visited the other dog owner to assess whether the dog is a prohibited fighting breed (it is very unlikely a CSO would be qualified to assess that, as these dogs all look very similar).

On a personal level I really don't need to be fighting the police at the same time as my mum is in hospital and I am also having to care for her dog. However, it is lucky that my mum was a fit and healthy 80 year old: a more frail woman or a child out walking their dog in the park could have been killed, and the next time this dog attacks in this way they may well be, so something needs to be done. I happened to be chatting to someone at the vets yesterday who turned out to be a dog warden, and he told me that these sort of attacks are getting more common and that the police's abdication of duties in these sort of circumstances is sadly not at all unusual.

The Dangerous Dogs Act simply states that an offence is committed if a dog is:
- Dangerously out of control
- In a public place

My ancient mother and her ancient dog have both suffered severe injuries in an attack.  In a public park.  I am sorry, I obviously don't have the intellectual capacity to become a police officer, but I would really appreciate someone explaining to me what I am missing here.

Even if the other owner's version of events were true and her dog was indeed on a lead throughout the incident I think that the injuries which my mum and her dog sustained would be prima facie evidence that her dog was dangerously out of control anyway, as she couldn't stop it from attacking my mum and her dog.  The police obviously think otherwise.

And in the meantime, of course, the police are no doubt squandering hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on consultants and focus groups trying to work out why the typical law-abiding taxpaying citizen has no respect for the police any more.  If they would like to come to talk to me I would be more than happy to explain it to them for nothing.

Actually I suppose that as a taxpayer I should think that this new police initiative is great: it will save immense amounts of police time.  "No officer, of course I didn't mug the old lady who is lying unconscious on the pavement over there.  I was just walking past her as she tripped over a raised paving slab. No need to waste your time interviewing her when she comes round, you must have better things to do with your time.  Now off you go to issue some parking tickets".

Mum's main concern at the moment is that she can't get out to look after her injured dog.  She is also very upset that this dangerous dog is still free to roam the streets, and she shares my concerns about what might happen the next time it attacks.

In terms of herself, her real worry is about her long-term independence.  She has always been fiercely independent, and despite being 80 has always kept herself fit and healthy (she is a vegan, and she walks seven or eight miles most days).  She is really concerned that she will no longer be able to walk, as that is the thing she really loves to do.  She is on very strong painkillers at the moment although obviously she is still in pain, but is really frustrated that she currently can't do anything for herself as both arms are in casts and she can hardly move the fingers of her right hand at the moment because of the bite injuries.  I am sure I don't need to explain the indignities a woman of her generation feels at being washed etc. by male staff.  Fortunately she has always kept herself fit and healthy and is a fighter, and I am hopeful she will get over this, but I think it is unlikely that many eighty year old women would; you hear of so many of them succumbing after suffering broken hips in fairly innocuous falls without all the additional trauma of these other injuries which have been inflicted on her.

I would really appreciate anyone reading this leaving comments below if they agree with me on this (or even if they don't for that matter), and of course if you know anyone who might be in a position to bring some pressure to bear to resolve this I would really appreciate this being passed on to them.  To leave a comment please either choose "anonymous" or "name/URL" to put your name to it.  Alternatively please feel free to email me if you prefer: keith@jazzupdate.co.uk.  I have no intention of letting this rest, but really have no idea where to take it at the moment, but a show of support will hopefully help me argue just how wrong this is.

ps I write this as an animal lover and the owner of two dogs.  There is no anti-dog agenda here, but this animal will end up killing or maiming someone (even ignoring the suffering it will no doubt inflict on other dogs), and something needs to be done about it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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