Lesmahagow attack terrier is saved, but master goes to jail

At an earlier hearing, Dayle Cosgrove, 25, of Firhill Road, admitted that, on January 20, he failed to control his dog Hannibal when it attacked a rottweiler in Lesmahagow’s Balgray Road, leaving it with injuries requiring treatment by a vet.

He further admitted that he again failed to keep his dog under control on January 29 when, virtually at the same location, it attacked a cocker spaniel. The dog it attacked that time was uninjured, though.

Sentence had been deferred until Thursday to allow sheriff Robert Weir to obtain a background report on Cosgrove, who appeared from custody for a sentence he is serving on another matter, and to clarify if he required to order the destruction of Cosgrove’s dog.

The sheriff, who had earlier commented that Hannibal was “a young dog with a bad owner”, heard that it is now in the care of another person and is the subject of a council dog control order, with its behaviour being monitored. He said a destruction order was unnecessary.

However, he jailed Cosgrove, that sentence to run concurrent to his existing one.