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A Lincoln man has described his horror after watching his beloved dog being attacked while out on a walk.

Tom Devlin, 46, and wife, Celina, 43, took their golden retriever Sunny out for some exercise at Birchwood nature park last Sunday, April 22.

However, what began as a relaxed walk in the Lincolnshire countryside soon turned into a nightmare when another dog still on its lead set upon his pet, leading to a frantic effort to try to get him free.

“We always go there because it is at the back of our house and it’s an easy walk to do,” said the operations manager.

“We let Sunny off his lead as we were practising recall with him as he does have a tendency to run up to other dogs.

“As we went around the corner, this other dog broke free from its owner with its lead still attached and attacked Sunny.

“We could see it.

"There was a lot of shouting and my wife was shouting. This dog had the back of Sunny’s head in its mouth.

“We couldn’t get it off. Sunny was screaming and yelping - I honestly thought his ear was going to come off."

Thankfully, Sunny was eventually prised free.

But despite Mr Devlin's shock, he does not want to see the dog at fault being put down.

“We had to rip him out of the dog’s mouth. To be fair to the owners, they did say sorry and were very apologetic afterwards,” he said.

“There wasn’t a lot of blood to be honest but you could see blood on the other dog’s tongue.

“He was wearing a thick leather collar which probably saved him from the teeth going into his neck, which could have been much worse.

“I am not saying that it would attack a child as they might have children but a small dog would definitely have been seriously hurt, if not killed.

“I am glad that may daughter who is 12 wasn’t there as she would have been horrified by what she would have seen.

“I don’t want to see the dog destroyed but I think it needs to be put on a muzzle as I have heard it has done it before.”

Sunny has since been taken to a vets and is expected to recover – but his owner is worried about how it will affect his dog’s state of mind.

“We took him to the vets on Monday and they shaved his hair ,which showed big holes where the teeth had punctured his flesh," he said.

“The vet said it is likely the wound would get infected because an infection is carried by the dog’s teeth and gave us some stuff that cost £100.

“He is expected to heal well but we are glad as we have had him since he was a puppy and he was a replacement for the female version we had for 12 years before.

“We were devastated when we lost her so we are thankful that he was bitten in a fleshy area as had it been somewhere like the back of the leg it could have been a lot worse."

He added: “I don’t know when we will take him out again. He is greedy but has never been in a fight before.

“I don’t know what he will be like with other dogs as there could be psychological effects.”

Police are investigating the attack after a report was received that a "potentially dangerous" dog was in the area.

The force are now planning to speak to Mr Devlin about the incident.