A Yorkshire terrier dog named Jack, believed to be the oldest in the UK, has died after being mauled to death by another dog while being taken on his morning walk. Jack, who had been rescued when his former owners left him tied to a pole and abandoned at the age of 10, made headlines in the UK last year when he turned 26, double the typical lifespan of a dog of his breed.
Jack’s owners Ray and Mary Bunn described how the elderly dog was set to take this daily walk in Hartlepool when a black Lakeland terrier ran up and attacked him. “The dog just came out of nowhere and grabbed Jack on his side. He wasn’t on a lead,” Ray Bunn told the local newspaper The Northern Echo.
Bunn revealed that despite repeatedly punching the attacking terrier, the dog managed to repeatedly bite and maul Jack over a period of three minutes. When the dog finally released Jack, Bunn wrapped the bleeding dog in a blanket and rushed towards the nearest vet, but Jack succumbed to his injuries in the back of the car.
“I am still in shock,” Bunn said. “We expected Jack to die quietly in his sleep, not in this horrible, violent way.”
Jack had not managed to live to the remarkable age without developing a number of health problems, including arthritis and occasional incontinence. But for the 16 years he spent with the Bunns, he was treated with love, served a diet of sirloin steak or corned beef.
“He was brilliant, very intelligent. If he wanted his tea he would tell you, if he wanted taking out he would tell you,” Bunn told The Daily Record. “He was a marvellous dog. He was a character, everybody loved him”
A 44-year-old man from the Hartlepool area has been summoned to the Teesside Magistrates Court for the offence of being the owner in charge of a dog dangerously out of control.
But the Bunn family has been left devastated at the savage end to their dog’s life.
“Jack had me up at 5.45am and I shouted at him. I feel very guilty about that now,” said Mary Bunn. “But Jack knew he was loved and cared for. He had a very long and happy lie, and I take comfort from that.”
