Sutton woman’s dogs will be destroyed after savaging a cockerpoo and fatally mauling a Shih Tzu

Denise Donner wasn’t present when her black and white Staffordshire bull terrier, Doings, and her tan pitbull, Gucci, began growling at Ernie the cockerpoo on Rosewood Drive, Kirkby, at 4.50pm on July 14 last year, said Neil Hollett, prosecuting.

Fearing Ernie was about to be attacked his owner picked him up and the dogs jumped up, scratching his arms and chest.

When Ernie had to be put back on the ground, the “very strong and determined” dogs continued to attack and weren’t deterred when a member of the public tried to separate them with a baseball bat.

Ernie’s owner injured his right foot trying to kick them away before they ran off. He took Ernie to the vets where an experienced nurse said she had not seen such severe injuries before, and he was left with a £2,450 bill.

On the same day Doings and Gucci were brought in as strays and microchipped. Donner was identified as their owner when she collected them.

Mr Hollett said police were called when Donner was bitten by another dog while she was trying to stop it fighting in 2023.

Gucci and Doings “ripped into another dog” and caused “significant injuries” while she wasn’t present in May 2024. And in April 2025 she was bitten again while trying to separate them.

Six weeks after that incident, Doings and Gucci bit a Shih Tzu so badly in the neck it had to be put down.

Mr Hollett said there was “clear evidence she is not a fit and proper person to own dogs” when asking magistrates to consider a destruction order.

Thc court heard Gucchi the pitbull is prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991. Donner also failed to attend court on July 13. The dogs have been kennelled by the police at a cost of £26,000 to the public purse.

Ian Pridham, mitigating, said Donner “deeply regrets” what happened, adding: “As far as she was concerned she brought them up very well and trained them to the best of her experience.”

But problems arose after she moved in with her brother, he said, and on the day in question she had gone out shopping thinking the dogs were secure but “they either got out or were let out.”

“It comes something of a shock to her to learn they have behaved in this way,” Mr Pridham said. “She didn’t know Gucci was a prohibited breed.”

He said she had conquered a drug problem but the confiscation of her dogs led to her hospitalisation through alcohol abuse, although she is now sober.

Donner, aged 53, of St Michael's Street, Sutton, admitted two counts of owning dogs that were dangerously out of control, possessing a fighting dog, and allowing a fighting dog to be in a public place without a muzzle or lead, when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on February 16.

On Wednesday she was ordered to pay £2,450 compensation to Ernie’s owner and £2,000 towards the £26,000 kennelling costs which will be deducted from her benefits.

Donner wept when she learned Doings and Gucci will be destroyed. She was banned from keeping dogs for five years.