A woman said her dog was “essentially skinned alive” after being bitten by a rottweiler.

Meg Rose’s 10-year-old Jack Russell was attacked on Sunday (September 10) in Lower Rainham Road, Rainham, between The Angel and The Three Sisters pubs.

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

She said: “I was walking round the field and got to the right-hand corner and two rottweilers came running round the corner without a lead and ignoring the owner’s recall commands.

“My dog sniffed the first one and turned to the second and the first dog in a split second went from calm to attack mode – it’s like his prey drive kicked in.

“He grabbed my dog and shook him like the death shake.”

Meg screamed and the owners of the other dog ran over, however she says one of them told her she was being dramatic and walked off with the dogs still off the lead.

“To make matters worse he had to ask me which one of his dogs attacked as he was nowhere near to see as they let their dogs run off,” she said.

“When I carried on walking I saw there was blood coming from my dog so I ran round to try and find them again and showed them the bite mark.

“The man came up and said it was only a flesh wound and then gave me his details on my phone but they turned out to be fake.”

Meg, who lives in Rainham, immediately took her dog to the emergency vets and got the wound washed. He was also given antibiotics and painkillers.

She said: “My dog is very robust and doesn’t show pain often but this was incredibly hard for me to watch after the attack.

“We went back to the vets on Monday and they said the two puncture wounds are over 5cm deep and the width between them is 20cm wide.

“Where he was lifted and shook, his skin was ripped off the muscle – for that whole 20cm section it was essentially him being skinned alive.”

The vet bill is now nearing £1,000, however, she is expecting it to rise even more after future appointments.

Police have confirmed they were called at 8.10am on Sunday to a report that a dog had bitten another dog near Otterham Quay Lane, Upchurch.

A spokesman said: “Officers have carried out inquiries into the circumstances and no criminal offences have been identified.”

Meg is urging people to come forward about dog owners if they know anything and to give any information to police.

There were two owners with the dogs, thought to be in their 30s, and a young child.

She described the man as having dark hair, a short beard, being around 5ft 10ins and of slim to medium build, and he was white.

She said the woman had brown shoulder-length hair, was around 5ft 6ins and was slightly tanned.

Meg said: “Even though the dog is dangerous I do not blame the dog or the breed. My dog walks weekly with a rottweiler along with other big breeds.

“With the correct owners they can be amazing dogs but it’s sad that these owners are not that. If their dogs were on a lead this would never have happened.

“I dread to think what would have happened if this was a smaller or less muscular dog than mine, as the dog was going to kill mine if the owners didn’t get him off.

“My dog is very sore and in pain but lucky to be alive.”