A FUND-raising appeal to help cover veterinary bills for two rescue greyhounds injured in a savage attack by another dog in Rockwell Green has brought in nearly £1,500.

The Wellington Weekly reported last week how Shane Masland was walking Jet and Jimmer together with his 14-year-old Patterdale terrier Tess when a neighbour’s dog ran out of its house and attacked them.

It happened yards from Mr Masland’s home in Westford Grange, and he has since been told of an earlier attack by the same dog on another neighbour’s dachshund, which he said happened in October.

The incident left Mr Masland and his wife Sally facing a near-£1,200 bill after vets had to operate on Jet, whom they said was lucky to be alive after suffering a puncture wound millimetres from his jugular vein, and Jimmer, who lost a tooth and a claw.

Mrs Masland launched a Gofundme appeal after the neighbour refused to help with the costs and was amazed to see her target smashed within a day and a half.

She said: “Our dogs have been traumatised but are slowly wagging their tails again, trusting again and hopefully will make a full recovery.

“It did not matter if it was a small amount or large, you all came together to take the financial burden off of our shoulders.

“We can now concentrate 100 per cent on getting our boys over this and moving on with their recovery.”

Mr Masland said he was concerned after learning of an earlier attack that there appeared to be a pattern of behaviour by the neighbour’s dog.

He said he had been asking social housing landlord LiveWest, which manages more than 40,000 homes in the Westcountry, to take action but it did not appear to want to talk to the neighbour.

Mr Masland said: “This dog will do it again.

“If that door is open, and that dog has got out twice before, and a kid is walking a dog and gets hurt, what will they do then, it will be too late.

“They need to act now or it will be too late.”

Mr Masland said after covering the surgery bill the rest of the money from the appeal would be given to a charity.

Police eventually agreed to investigate the attack on Mr and Mrs Masland’s dogs and said the neighbour had signed an agreement ‘to keep his dog under proper control’.

LiveWest director of neighbourhoods James Reseigh told the Wellington Weekly: “We are sorry to hear about an incident relating to one of our resident’s dogs.

“We take the safety of our communities extremely seriously and have spoken to the dog owner about following our pet policy at all times.

“We have been assured this will not happen again.

“Our housing team advised the resident to report the incident to the police and the dog warden and we will continue to support them in any way we can.”