WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES: Lesley Anne Robinson and her granddaughter’s puppy were viciously attacked by an XL Bully in West Lothian – despite complaints about the dog previously being made to the council
A Scots woman says the mystery man who intervened during a savage mauling by an XL Bully saved her life.
Lesley Anne Robinson, 63, was walking her granddaughter’s border collie puppy, Bea, on Marina Road in West Lothian on Thursday afternoon when the nightmare unfolded.
An XL Bully – unmuzzled and off its leash – pounced onto Bea, sinking its teeth into the puppy’s neck before turning on Lesley Anne, biting her arms and fingers and knocking her to the ground. Thankfully, a stranger leapt to their rescue and managed to pull the beast off the pair before its owners fled the scene.
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Recalling the terrifying ordeal, Lesley Anne told the Daily Record: “The dog just appeared and before I could react it just went straight for Bea and grabbed her by the neck. Adrenaline surged through me and without thinking I lunged at it and tried to get it off Bea, but it wouldn’t release its grip. I was getting desperate so I put my hand in its mouth but nothing seemed to be working.
Shockingly, Lesley Anne claims the dog’s owners – a man and a woman – did nothing to help. “I screamed at the owners but the woman turned her back and said she couldn’t look at what was happening and the man just said ‘what do you want me to do?'” she said. “It had knocked me off my feet and was biting me and Bea so I was really beginning to panic when out of nowhere a man appeared.”
The kind man, who had seen the incident from a nearby window, left his child indoors alone to intervene, according to Lesley Anne. “He had to go but I didn’t even get the chance to thank him,” she added.
Bleeding and in shock, Lesley Anne managed to stumble back home with Bea before calling her daughter, who rushed her to St John’s Hospital in Livingston and took Bea to the vet.
The gran, who was left with two deep lacerations to both arms and multiple cuts to her fingers, believes she could have died if the man hadn’t intervened.
She continued: “My chest started to hurt when I got home and I didn’t know if I was suffering from a heart attack. I was given a chest X-ray at the hospital and thankfully I was just badly bruised from when I was wrestling with the dog on the ground. Bea has three deep cuts on her neck and we have to go back to the vet on Monday to find out if she needs an operation.”
The emotional toll of the attack has also been severe. “Mentally, I have been completely traumatised and it will take a long time to recover from this,” she said. “I am lucky to be alive and if that man hadn’t arrived I wouldn’t have been able to stop the dog from attacking us.”
Lesley Anne said she takes care of Bea during the day while her 17-year-old granddaughter Milly is at college. “She is a tiny wee thing and I can’t stop thinking of what would have happened if it was her who was walking Bea,” Lesley Anne added.
A community council meeting has already taken place following multiple complaints about the same XL Bully. But Lesley Anne said police told her they are unable to act in situations when an owner intervenes in a dog-on-dog attack.
She explained: “The police have been in touch and said they are passing this incident on to partner agencies and are unable to remove the dog because it didn’t attack me first. This dog has been a problem in the area for a long time and people are afraid to walk their dogs. They can’t wait until it kills someone before they do something.”
Councillor Harry Cartmill said: “I chaired a public meeting months ago to try to support my constituents living in fear of this dog and the owner’s anti-social behaviours. Afterwards I met with Police Scotland but no substantive action was forthcoming. I also appealed to West Lothian Council’s housing officers in terms of securing an eviction and again nothing was done and now we have this terrible and indeed avoidable incident.”
He added that while it’s “too late” for Lesley Anne, he hopes that “surely now the police and the council will act”.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 4.10pm on Thursday, 11 September, 2025, we received a report of a dog attacked by another dog on Marina Road, Bathgate. This incident has been referred to the relevant partner agencies.”
Meanwhile, a West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “Under the Dangerous Dogs Act, issues with prohibited breeds, such as XL Bullys, and dogs bites on humans, are both a matter for Police Scotland. Any information that the council receives on either of these issues will be shared with Police Scotland.”
