2:28pm Thursday 28th January 2010
By Scott Mullins
TWO teenagers have relived the moments their pet dog turned on their dad in a sustained and bloody attack.
Steven and Jonathan Atkins say they were at their home in Palace View, Grove Park, on Sunday night (January 24) when year-old Buster tried to bite 14-year-old Steven.
They claim their father John Atkins, 53, intervened and pulled the dog off, sparking a 15 minute ordeal as the family battled to control their snarling dog.
Jonathan, 16, said he and his dad were barely strong enough to pin down the out-of-control animal, taken in by the family as a stray four months ago.
“Buster must have got a taste for human blood and flesh - it just wouldn’t let go of my dad,” he explained.
“Someone came in with a motorbike helmet and golf club and started bashing them over the dog’s head but it wouldn’t give up.
“My dad was losing a lot of blood. He was crying out ‘help me, help me’.
“I went and got a kitchen knife to stab the dog but my dad told me not too because the dog was so close to him.”
He added: “I eventually got the dog by its back legs and threw it into the back garden.”
Jonathan and his dad then made their way outside to their car, in an effort to get to hospital.
But Jonathan says Buster escaped from the garden and continued its attack, prompting neighbours to call 999.
Despite being blasted with a fire extinguisher, the dog forced its way into the car and then into the back of an ambulance before police arrived at around 9pm.
Jonathan, a former pupil at Catford’s Sedgehill School, said: “The living room was like a murder scene. I was smothered in blood too.
“There was blood all over the lounge floor. Buster was white but by the end of it all he was red, soaked in blood.
“The dog was after my dad - it was trying to kill him.”
Steven, who attends Sedgehill School, was bitten on the hand at the start of the attack and says he and his brother managed to save his dad’s life by helping to beat off the pitbull-type breed.
He added: “I was crying when it was happening.
“My brother and I basically saved our dad’s life - he would have been dead if we weren’t there.
“It was terrifying.
“Buster had always been a loving and caring dog.”
The teenagers say their dad, who works at a supermarket in Orpington, is expected to be in St Thomas' Hospital for several more weeks, recovering from fractures to his hands and arms.
They say doctors have had to put metal pins into his hands during reconstructive surgery.
The boys live with their 12-year-old sister, Louise, and claim Buster was only ever aggressive to other dogs but never to their family.
Stephen and Jonathan are staying with family in Beckenham and Elmers End while their dad recovers.
The dog is thought to have been destroyed and the Met police have confirmed they are investigating the incident.
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