Ute dog pack tears at woman’s kelpie

A Kununurra woman feared her pet kelpie would be ripped apart when it was attacked by three dogs that jumped off a parked ute.

Cherie Kelly was walking her 12-year-old dog Bella near Target Kununurra, on Sunday, November 4, when three dogs jumped off the back of a ute in the shop carpark.

The animals, which Ms Kelly said looked like white mastiffs, attacked Bella, one gripping her by the neck and the other by her back leg. Ms Kelly screamed, kicked and hit the dogs with her bag but she was unable to stop them.

She said a car full of people who pulled over to help had saved Bella’s life.

“I do not know how I can thank any of you enough, you all put yourself in danger to help me and before you came I honestly thought that I was watching my old girl being pulled apart,” Ms Kelly said.

“If those people didn’t stop then those dogs wouldn’t have let go once they had tasted the blood,” she said.

Ms Kelly said the owner of the dogs that attacked Bella was in shock, and that she remembered him saying “they don’t do this”.

She said she was grateful the owner had stayed to make sure Bella was okay, but believed his dogs should have been restrained.

“Even if you think your dogs are okay, they should be tied up,” she said. “I just think all dogs should be tied up if they are in the back of a ute (or) in a cage.”

The RSPCA said the Dog Act 1976 does not require dog owners to restrain their pets for ute travel.