Australian man bites attacking dog

A Clifton Springs man has told how he bit a dog to save his own from being mauled to death on a Collendina beach. Phillip Lane said he was walking his two-year-old Jack Russell-cross-beagle Buddy with his wife Linda on a quiet Collendina dog beach about 4pm Monday, when a large, brown ridgeback ran up and snatched their little dog in its jaws.

"It grabbed our dog, threw him to the ground and had him by the neck," Mr Lane said. "I thought, 'if he starts shaking him, he'll kill him'." Mr Lane said he tackled the attacking dog and tried to forcibly unclamp its jaws with his hands.

"My wife was screaming, kicking the dog and trying to get it off ... but it wouldn't release him," he said. "I managed to open its jaws once and he let (Buddy) go, but then he grabbed him again. I thought Buddy was gonna be dead, that's it, he's gone ... he was crying and squealing, it was just horrible."



Then, Mr Lane's protective instinct took hold. With one hand in the ridgeback's mouth and another around its neck, he resorted to the most desperate of measures. "I thought, 'if you're not gonna let go, I'm gonna bite your ear off' ... I ended up biting him on the ear as hard as I could," he said.

The bite stunned the attacking dog, which released Buddy and was taken away by its male owner, who had just arrived. Mr and Mrs Lane then grabbed their bloodied, stricken pooch and took him to the safety of the water, before rushing him to the vet.

Mr Lane said veterinarians told him the thick skin around Buddy's neck had helped it survive the attack. The dog is now recovering from its grazes and bruises at home. Mr Lane, meanwhile, received multiple cuts to his hands from the Ridgeback's attack, with a doctor administering butterfly stitches, a tetanus shot and antibiotics.