aw wee soul, hope you are both over it now x

I hate hearing stories like this.

We've been lucky so far. We walk our dog in a lovely park in a very nice area. Everyone one we meet there is lovely and our pup plays with all the dogs off lead and without incident. Yet I've been told that there have been two or three dogs ripped apart and killed whilst on lead. I *think* the attacking dogs were staffies (Certainly one of the breeds that ignorant thugs tend to choose). One of the dogs killed was a little westie. His owner was apparantly kicking and hiting the staffie to get it off his pet, but it wouldn't let go. And this is in the very public areas of the park where all the kiddies play. On these occasions the owners apparantly ran, leaving their dogs behind them.

Does anyone know what you should do if something like this happens? I know someone that (illegally) carries pepper spray for this purpose. I would be prepared to break the law to protect my baby. I've read you should never pull a dog off by it's collar but instead grab it's back legs and lift them up. Any experts out there? I'd risk getting bitten to protect her.