Hounds attacked me in my garden

Jan 16 2004 By David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

THE Cheshire Hunt's entire pack of hounds has been put on the police dog bite register after they attacked an animal rights campaigner in his back yard.

Chris Owen, a member of Cheshire League Against Cruel Sports, suffered bites to his hand and arm and a scratch to his face, during one of several incidents in the Clotton and Duddon areas.

About 20 baying hunting hounds charged up Mr Owen's garden last Saturday afternoon, frightening his two young daughters and two pet Labradors who sought refuge inside the family home off Tarporley Road in Clotton.

Some of the unaccompanied hounds burst though the back door and ran around the house. They continued down an alleyway on the side of the property but were blocked by a six-foot bolted gate.

Mr Owen said: 'The dogs, many of which were covered in blood, were going berserk, throwing themselves at the gate and trying to get through. A few of the hounds were trying to get through a fence next to the gate into my neighbours' property where their young child plays, so I decided the safest thing to do was to unbolt the gate and get them away from our homes as fast as possible.

'I went forward to unbolt the gate and as I grabbed the bolt I could feel them jumping on me with even more hounds piling in behind - it was just a mass of frenzied dogs. I could feel them grabbing my arm and hands and the power of them left me flattened on the ground.

'Thank God they went through the gate and away. I have had dogs all my life and had to break up the odd dog fracas but I have never experienced anything like this,' added Mr Owen, a freelance photographer and antiques trader.

'It really was terrifying. Had I not got the gate open I dread to think how bad it could have been for me, and had they got into our neighbours' garden where their young child plays, well it does not bear thinking about.'

Mr Owen, who is vehemently anti-hunt, finds it amazing he of all people ended up being the victim, although he says it has happened before, including an incident when a fox being chased by the hunt was cornered in his garden in 1987.

He and his wife Susanne, who are considering suing the Cheshire Hunt, said in a joint statement: 'Ourselves and a great many other residents are extremely angry over what has happened here, not just angry at the hunt, but at the Prime Minister Tony Blair who was elected on a raft of pledges including banning hunting, but has let us down badly.

'Hunting should have been dead and buried by now. It was like a battle zone out there. Someone could have been seriously injured or killed.'

Bob and Beryl Walsh, who live about a mile away from the Owens in Burton Lane, Duddon, also contacted the police about hounds running on to the A51 and causing traffic to slow down.