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Kennel worker loses arm in dog attack


A KENNEL worker had to have her left arm amputated after she was attacked by a dog in the kennels where she worked. Mandy Peynado's arms were savaged as she tried to protect her throat when the dog attacked her at Knightwood Kennels near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Surgery to save her badly bitten right arm proved successful last week.

Claire Gourley, Mandy's sister, said: ‘Her spirits are fairly good and the doctors are saying she is a miracle.’ Ms Peynado, 47, was due to go back into the operating theatre on Monday of this week for more surgery.

During Saturday's operation, surgeons took muscle from her back and used it as a skin graft to preserve her right arm. Doctors are still unsure whether they can save what remains of the top of left arm. Ms Peynado has worked at the rescue holding kennels for three years.

The dog, a Rottweiler, had been picked up as a stray by New Forest District Council six weeks earlier and had not shown any signs of aggression.

The kennel's owner Judith Wykeham said it would have been treated differently if she had known it had a troubled background. ‘Apparently there was a history with the owner who abandoned the dog and the police are investigating,’ she said. The dog was later destroyed by Wiltshire Police.