This is brave little Max, just two weeks after a pair of crazed Staffordshire bull terriers tried to pull him apart in a public park.

The two dogs terrified a mother and two children, trapping them in a fence play area, before attacking Max and his owner in the recreation ground off New Hythe Lane, Larkfield.

This week dog walker Anthony Kember recounted the full horror of the attack, which left Max, his two-year-old West Highland terrier, needing £400 of veterinary treatment and Mr Kember having medical attention for bites.

The mother who witnessed the mayhem has also described the bloody scene which left her and her children aged two and four-years-old traumatised.

“I couldn’t protect my children from it” she said, “they could see everything; they were screaming, I was screaming for help.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was one on the front end of this little white dog and the other on the back end; the dog looked like a rag doll, it was absolutely disgusting.

“The noise was horrible; the squealing of the little white dog and the grunting and the horrible noises from these two staffs; it just seemed to go on forever.”

And she praised the actions of 65-year-old Mr Kember, who fought desperately to save Max.

“He was so brave; he was on his hand and knees trying to protect his dog” she said. “The attack went on and on and all of a sudden it just stopped; we thought the dog was dead.”

In reality the clever two-year-old 'westie’ was merely playing dead.

“I think he saved himself by playing dead” said Mr Kember. “They kind of gave up; they thought they had done him.”

Only seconds before Mr Kember had been battling the dogs with only his bare hands and a dog lead.

The owners were nowhere to be seen.

“I got down to fight them off because I couldn’t stand there and watch them maul my dog” he said. “All I was doing was trying to fight them off, hitting them with my lead. I kind of got hold of them and pulled them but it’s quite difficult; they were powerful dogs.

“They didn’t have any collars; that made it harder.

“It took all my strength and I was near exhaustion at the end. It was my actions, but it was also Max; I think he saved himself.”

The ordeal did not end there. When Mr Kember tried to put the badly wounded Max in his car he again found himself wrestling with one of the bull terriers which had jumped into his boot.

It was only after he managed to throw it out and put Max in the front seat that he could make a get-away and drive to the vets.

Despite his wounds and the trauma of being savaged, Max has since returned to walk in the park.

“He’s got over it now” said Mr Kember, who works part time in a plastics factory. “He’s quite a tough dog. He’s young enough; that’s what got him through.”

But it has not been so easy for those who witnessed the attack.

The mother-of-two, from Larkfield - who asked not wish to be named for fear of reprisals – described how the menacing pair of dogs had been circling the fenced play area, staring at her children “watching every move they made” just minutes before turning on Max and Mr Kember.

And she said she would not feel safe at the park until she knew the dogs had been caught.

“When we got home we just sat on the settee and cuddled and cried; it was just awful.

“I couldn’t sleep that night, the children couldn’t sleep that night; they still talk about it: they say 'mummy, those naughty dogs, they’re not there are they?’”

She added: “They need to be caught, and they should be muzzled.

“They’ve had a taste of blood now; I don’t know if the saying’s true – once they’ve tasted blood they want more – but if it is then God help whoever they get or whatever they get next time.”

Mr Kember, from Snodland, said he didn’t believe in banning Staffordshire bull terriers but said they were a notorious breed.

“That breed of dog is usually involved” he said, “but the owners have got to be responsible for what the dogs have done.”

An investigation by Tonbridge and Malling council into the incident, which happened on Thursday, September 25, is still continuing.