A PET owner has warned others to be on their guard about dangerous dogs after her beloved dog was left battered and bloodied when it was attacked on Brean beach.

Tricia Crew, 65, was walking her nine-year-old Whippet, Fudge, at Brean Down during the afternoon of Saturday, September 19, when the dog was injured. ran up towards the sand dunes.

Fudge returned, yelping in pain with a large wound on her side where she had been bitten by another dog.

“I was holidaying in my campervan with friends on Warren Farm site and had walked into Brean for the afternoon,” said Tricia, who lives in Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire.

“We walked back along the beach because it was such a lovely day and Fudge was off lead and muzzled and quite happy exploring the beach as we made our way back.

"Fudge then decided to go up to the dunes, which she loves running through.

“We were in an area where there were cars and families parked along the beach and I was still close by as she went behind a car.

“I then heard her yelping and she came back to me whining and obviously in pain, it was then I noticed the large pink patch on her thigh “I looked up to see the car with a lady, two children and a dog sitting on the shady side but was so concerned about the distress Fudge was in that I didn’t get a good look at the dog.”

Tricia, a retired mother of two, believes that the dog was black and about the size of a Retriever.

After briefly speaking to the lady, Tricia had to take Fudge, who she bought nearly three years ago from a Bristol rescue centre, to an emergency vet in Bridgwater.

“Luckily we got back to site and my friends were there to help, as even ringing the vet was traumatic for me because I have a profound hearing loss so have to rely on others to make phone calls,” she added.

“I am not a confrontational person and avoid conflict whenever possible but I wish that was not the case."

Tricia now faces a huge vets bill and says she feels very stressed from the incident because of the damage caused to Fudge and ongoing healing time.

“On reflection I should have reacted totally differently and got the dog owners details, checked out the dog and also tried to get her to take me back to site.” she said.

“Also, it occurred to me afterwards, what if that had been a child walking behind the car?

“It was a distressing incident which happened on a beach I love to take Fudge on and had I not had friends around me, it would have been doubly traumatic.”