Fallin mum stabs pet Collie

Oct 23 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

A WOMAN is facing jail after stabbing her own dog with a kitchen knife.

Anne Campbell (53) plunged the blade into the leg of her black collie Shep after the animal started barking furiously during a family row.

Police were called and arrived at Campbell’s home in Fallin, to find the dog wounded and Campbell weeping and hugging it “hysterically”, Stirling Sheriff Court was told on Tuesday.

Gail Russell, prosecuting, said the incident happened on September 9, 2008 during an argument Campbell was having with one of her grown-up daughters about “family issues”.

Miss Russell said: “During the argument, her two dogs, a black Labrador and a black cross breed collie were in the kitchen. When the collie began to bark, Mrs Campbell began to shout to the dog, wanting it to calm down. When that did not happen, she went into the kitchen area and took a knife. Her daughter saw her plunge the knife into the collie’s leg.”

The depute fiscal said the daughter went into the kitchen, removed the knife and threw it in the sink while Campbell held a towel against the leg of the terrified dog to stop the bleeding.

She added: “When the emergency services arrived Mrs Campbell was hysterically hugging the dog. They also took the knife. There were blood and hairs on the knife, matching the dog.”

It was taken to a vet in Stirling, who found two wounds. One was on the left leg of the dog, four inches deep. The other one, on its back, was superficial. The dog was treated by the vet at a cost of more than £600.

Campbell, of Hawthorn Drive, pleaded guilty to causing the dog unnecessary suffering.

Her plea of not guilty to causing a breach of the peace was accepted by the prosecution.

Defence solicitor Frazer McCready said Campbell had been “under a lot of stress”.

He said: “My client didn’t mean to stab or hurt the dog. She just wanted it to stop barking and to do this she grabbed the first thing she saw.”

He added that Campbell’s two dogs and her cat had been taken from her after the incident, and were presently outwith her control.

Sheriff Andrew Cubie deferred sentence until November for a social background report, and a community service assessment report.