Above: Debbie Scully with her twin boys Ryan and Connor and their retriever, Cara, after the family’s Papillon was killed by hounds in 1999. By Sarah Schwager
SEVEN years ago, Debbie Scully looked on in horror as a pack of foxhounds attacked and killed her small dog outside her Pakenham home.
The Pakenham mother said she was out walking her two dogs, a Papillon called Nissa and a retriever called Cara, with her 21monthold twin sons when seven of the Melbourne Hunt Club hounds broke away.
“As soon as the dogs ran, they chased after them. That’s what hounds do. When they came as a pack I grabbed a boy in each arm and ran after them. But it was too late,” Ms Scully said.
The attack took place in the front yard of her Deep Creek Road property in 1999.
The retriever was chased and escaped, but Nissa, 6, was attacked and died four hours later at a Pakenham veterinary surgery. The hound responsible was put down.
Ms Scully, who now lives in Oxley in northern Victoria, said her main concern at the time had been the safety of her sons Ryan and Connor.
“My biggest fear was that they would grab them. It would have been so much more horrible if it had been one of the boys,” she said.
Ryan and Connor, both eight, are now in grade three at primary school.
The family lives on a property outside Wangaratta with their dogs Cara, almost 11, and a terrier cross Riley, 5.
Ms Scully said they had got Riley from the Animal Aid about a year after Nissa was killed. She said neither she nor the boys had any fear of dogs after the incident.
“The boys were traumatised at the time.
“They knew they had lost one of their dogs. They see photos and say ‘that’s Nissa’ but they don’t recall her. I suppose that’s a blessing. I wish I hadn’t retained the memory as well,” she said.
Ms Scully had lived with the Melbourne Hunt Club as a tenant for four years in Cranbourne before moving to Pakenham so had no problems with hounds.
“I’d do all the hound work apart from walking them. I cleaned out their kennels,” she said.
“So I had no qualms about walking the dogs with the kids while the hounds were out.”
The Melbourne Hunt Club had relocated to Pakenham a year earlier.
“All of us who have dogs as pets, when people say they should be put down, we say ‘Why would I put them down?’,” Ms Scully said.
But, if a dog posed a danger to another animal or a human, no matter what the breed or how small the dog, then something should be done, she said.
