A WOMAN from Barrow has described the terrifying moment a Staffie dog "came out of nowhere" and almost killed her 12-year-old Golden Retriever in a brutal attack.

Joan Casaru took her elderly dog Bailey for a walk in Oxford Street on Tuesday for their daily afternoon stroll before she was due to start her shift as a cleaner at St Bernard's School in Barrow.


As they made their way along the pavement, "out of nowhere" a snarling and vicious Staffie-type dog appeared and launched itself at Bailey.

With the Staffie seemingly trying to rip off Bailey's face, and showing no signs of letting go, Mrs Casaru, 53, screamed for help.

A number of shocked bystanders came to her aid. At one point up to four people were working together to try to prise the Staffie's jaws apart.

Eventually, one of the men managed to pull the Staffie off Bailey, but the determined do managed to break free twice more before it was eventually pinned down.

Mrs Casaru, of York Street, said: "It came out of nowhere, it just landed on him. It just seemed like it was going to rag him to death.

"I grabbed it and tried to pull it off but it just totally ignored me, it was focused on Bailey. It didn't want to give up."

After the attack, one of the women who had raced over to help drove Mrs Casaru and Bailey to the vets, where he was treated for a number of puncture wounds. Although extremely shaken, and suffering from shock, Bailey is expected to make a full recovery.

"The thing is though, he's very old, he's completely deaf and he has a form of Alzheimer's," Mrs Casaru added.


"I don't think either of us will ever get over it, it was so traumatic.

"It really hit me at 5am the day after, I just woke up and couldn't stop crying. It felt like my heart was breaking."

Having had him for more than 10 years, Mrs Casaru and Bailey are inseparable, particularly since the death of her husband. She said the police officer who came to the scene after the attack told her the Staffie would more than likely be destroyed.

"I feel so sad that it will lose its life because people train dogs to be like this - people make dogs into what they are," she said.

"People think 'an animal is just an animal' but they're not. This dog will be put to sleep because it has been trained to kill. It's desperately sad and I think it's disgusting."

The Staffie was seized by police while enquiries are made to identify the owners. Anyone who has information is asked to call police on 101.