Veterinarian Dr. Maureen Ware-Cieters has called for a ban on training dogs to attack people after nearly losing her life when a mastiff cross savaged her.

She spent five days in hospital, needed multiple stitches and lost a large chunk of her arm during a relentless savaging on September 8. She went to the garden where a colleague was clearing up dead trees when a client's playful dog, which was being exercised during boarding, suddenly turned nasty after seeing her colleague wrap up a machete in a towel.

As the huge dog bolted at her colleague Dr. Ware-Cieters tried to grab its collar. "But it turned on me. It chomped on my arm, chomped down and would not let me go. I got away and lost a bit of flesh and then it got my other arm. It was pretty horrendous. I spent almost a week in hospital recovering from it. It was like a shark attack. The dog kept coming."

As more blood was drawn the dog got more savage but her husband finally dragged the dog off by its collar, said Dr. Ware-Cieters who was then unconscious after losing a lot of blood.

"I am told the dog wagged its tail and thought it had done well and was waiting for its reward. It savaged me, there is no other expression. I got away several times and several times he attacked me. It's no exaggeration to say I could have lost my life. It could have happened to anyone else. Clearly something triggered this."

The dog has since been put down and the vet stressed any suspected dangerous dogs were fitted with a basket muzzle straight away at her surgery.

She said she believes the dog could had been trained to attack humans at some stage and the machete in a towel resembled the sausage-like soft padding some dog trainers put on their arms when teaching their animals to detain a human beings.

Dogs which felt threatened would normally start with barking, growling and snarling before attacking she said, but this dog gave no warning which she felt was evidence it was carrying out a well practised ritual.

She distinguished it from dogs officially trained in the German Sch?tzen technique, now gaining ground in Bermuda, where they are taught to detain people but not chomp down and break skin. She said dogs known for their ability to answer commands were used rather than aggressive dogs which are removed.

But she said she had seen unsuitable dogs being trained for attacks on dummies in Southside and Police were handing out licences for such dogs to be used for security work.

"I feel there is absolutely no need for this in Bermuda," said Dr. Ware-Cieters who said such dogs could easily get out of control and do real harm. And she said if a dog did attack a human the owner would probably liable for damages.

"It's absolute madness. It's a lethal weapon. It isn't the dog's fault. We have got to get a handle on this. A lot of dogs are being used as an alternative to dangerous weapons."

Bermuda Veterinary Association president Andrew Madeiros said other than for Police work there was absolutely no justification for training dogs to attack people. Mr. Madeiros, who stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity, said dogs had been trained for private crowd control work at concerts and football games and a girl had been badly attacked at an event some years ago.

He said animal committees including the dog committee had raised concerns about the issue but he was unclear where Government now stood after several changes of Environment Minister.

"There is concern there is no regulatory body to stop someone from bringing in a dog to attack or training a dog to attack."