Mrs H M Roach, of Avery Hill, Kingsteignton, sends us a copy of her letter to Teignbridge dog warden:

I would like to inform you of an incident that occurred on Sunday, March 20, in Bovey Tracey Park whilst walking our puppy.

We had played in the park and walked down by the river, our children played in the play park while I stayed outside with our puppy. whilst there I spoke to a lady with another dog who expressed a concern with some of the dogs that go to the park.

Our puppy is quite anxious and so we try to encourage him to play with others and indeed this lady's dalmation was very well behaved. She explained that during a visit to the park that she had been attacked by another dog who had in fact broken her collarbone.

Whilst being sympathetic we carried on with our play and continued up past the river and up to the town.

In order to get back to our car we needed to walk up past the river again to the other end and whilst doing so we encountered a man and lady walking towards us who seemed to have some six dogs with them, three of them were quite big, one of which was a German Shepherd and the other three on the smaller side, none of which were on a lead.

Our puppy was on a lead but as we walked towards them they surrounded us and one dog which looked like a mastiff got quite nasty with our puppy and then sank his teeth into our springer spaniel and would not let go.

Obviously having young children with us we were very alarmed but we were astounded by the response of the owners once we had eventually got their dog to release his bite from our spaniel.

We did not get an apology, and when we asked for one all we got was a 'I'm as shocked as you are' from the lady and 'you had better put him on a lead' from the man, who was talking to the lady. At the very least a sorry would have been appropriate.

The reason for our comments to you are so you are aware of what happened so that if anything has or does happen like this in the future then this letter may be of some use to you.

I note from the Mid-Devon Advertiser this week that dogs will not be permitted in Bovey Tracey park with effect from June 1 and whilst I can understand why the actions of some irresponsible dog owners spoil it for others because other than the incident at the end of our afternoon we had had a beautiful walk and play with our dog and children.THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR ONLINE EDITION