SAVAGE DUEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1938, Page 5

SAVAGE DUEL

DOG FATALLY INJURED BY SHARK. A savage duel was fought betweert a 12ft shark and a champion bull terrier after the shark had snatched the dog from a sandspit at Northbridge, a suburb on the shores of Middle Harbour, an arm of Port Jackson. The dog fought its way from the shark’s mouth, drove it off, then swam ashore and died at its master’s feet. “The dog was standing with me on the sandspit when there was a swirl and the shark caught him by his hindquarters,” said the owner, Mr H. C. Gawthorn. “A few minutes earlier a friend and I had been swimming with the terrier. The shark came in with such force that for a few moments it was stranded. I belted it with the dog’s lead and kicked at it as it floundered half in and half out of the water. Grand Duke never whimpered. He was snarling and barking and trying to bite the shark as it held him in its mouth. Then the shark twisted round and its tail knocked me over in about three inches of water. When the monster was a few yards out the terrier fought his way free and then turned and attacked it.” Mr S. Anger, who had been in swimming. ran over when he heard the sounds of the struggle. “I heard Gawthorne shouting ‘shark’ and I thought he himself had been bitten and that the dog was trying to assist hijn,” he said. “I got there in time to see the dog actually going for the shark in the water. When he had driven it off he turned and struggled back to shore. He crawled back to us, looked up in a pitiful sort of way, and then fell over and died.” “Grand Duke was the bravest and most faithful dog I have ever known,” said his owner. “Last year he won the Royal Show championship for Australian-bred bull terriers. He had been entered again this year.”