A banned dog that escaped from its owner’s home and attacked three people in the street has been given a stay of execution after its owner appealed its death sentence.
Benson, a pitbull terrier owned by Anthony Stones, was sentenced to be put down earlier this year. But now, despite being a banned breed, the dog has been given a second chance and will be released from police kennels to its owner.
Last summer Benson attacked a mother who noticed him roaming around, before biting a local councillor and his partner in Stockport.
As a result, Mr Stones, 27, later pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control. He was ordered to pay costs and compensation, and his pet was made subject to a dog destruction order.
Mr Stones returned to court to appeal against the sentence - and won after an animal behavioural expert spoke up for the dog in a report.
Benson is now subject to a contingent dog destruction order, which means as long as his owner abides by conditions that prevent him from being a danger, he will not be put down.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard Benson had gone into ‘fight’ mode because he was ‘stressed’, and was otherwise a playful animal with a sound temperament, in the opinion of the expert who examined him.
The fact that the dog nipped rather than ‘clamped on’ to its victims - as it was perfectly capable of doing - was said by Mr Stones’ lawyer to be an example of how the dog did not have a violent character.
Benson began wandering the streets on the evening of August 17 after its owner made a momentary error, the court heard. Mr Stones’ lawyer, Richard Brigden, said that his client had been working a split shift as a courier that night, and had returned home to get some fishing gear for a friend.
Mr Stones then went back to work, leaving the door open. Benson got out into the street, with Mr Stones’ partner apparently unaware he’d left the house.
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Children and adults were out and about on that summer evening, including a mother walking with her seven-year-old daughter and two other little girls on Northgate Road, Edgeley, Stockport. When she didn’t see the dog’s owner she approached it, noticing it was scared. At that point Richard Coaton, a local councillor, and his wife Rachel, who had been walking their own dog, came upon the scene. The dog began barking loudly, attempts to calm it failed, and it lunged at the mum, biting her above the knee, before attacking each of the couple too. Benson then turned back to the mum, prompting her to jump onto a wall to escape him. The victims suffered puncture wounds and had to be treated with antibiotics and tetanus jabs.
Coun Coaton later said: “It wasn’t frightening at first. We went to walk away but it bit Rachel first then me. We then realised we were in a dangerous situation. It scares you to think ‘what if it had attacked children?’”
Despite Benson’s behaviour that night, the GMP dog handler who examined him first said he showed ‘no signs of aggression’ during an ‘intrusive’ examination process, although he did note the dog wasn’t used to being on a lead and was ‘nervous at times’.
Richard Brigden, representing Mr Stones, said leaving the door open ‘was an error he felt some shame about’.
“He understands now the effect of that error was that members of the public found themselves in a dangerous situation.”
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But Mr Brigden said Mr Stones had been brought up with dogs and knew how to look after them, and had moved to a property with a much bigger garden and bought a muzzle with a view to getting Benson back.
The former Metropolitan Police dog handler who assessed Benson while compiling an expert behavioural report found that Benson was playful, but manageable and happy to interact.
“(Mr Stones) would ask the court to accept that this will not happen again”, Mr Brigden said.
“Benson effectively used the minimum force he at the time thought was necessary - it’s not a dog who found himself in a stressful situation and has done the maximum damage. (Mr Stones) feels like he has lost a member of the family and feels utterly ashamed that his actions could lead to a member of the family being put down.”
Sentencing, Judge Bernard Lever said he was prepared to accept it was ‘an isolated aberration on the part of dog and owner’. But he warned Mr Stones: “If it happens again, Benson is destroyed, and nobody else is to blame.”
Benson must be vaccinated, neutered, tattooed, microchipped, registered with DEFRA, muzzled, kept on a lead in public by a person over the age of 16, housed securely and not allowed to escape or stray.
