South Yorkshire Times January 14, 1950
Dogs to Die
Conisbrough Folk Afraid to Approach House
A police constable at Doncaster West Riding Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, stated that tradespeople who called at a Conisbrough house were frightened of two Alsatian dogs at the place and waited out in the lane. The magistrates ordered that the dogs, ” Gyp ” and ” Monty,” belonging to Edith Musgrave (58), housewife, Sheffield Road, Conisbrough, should be destroyed.
To Pay Fine and Costs
Mrs. Musgrave appeared before the magistrates on six summonses of not keeping a dangerous dog under proper control and two summonses of failing to keep a dog under control during the hours of darkness.
She was fined a total of £5 9s. and costs.
Chief Supt.. A. Hunter said that Mrs. Betsy Crawshaw, next-door neighbour to Musgrave, was bitten in the right thigh on November 28th, when the two dogs attacked her. On December 15th, two men going to work between 4.30 and 4.40 a.m. were attacked by the two dogs. One man had to make a detour ” over a wall ” to the cemetery to get to his work, and the other man ten minutes later had to fight the dogs off for five minutes before he could get past them.
P.c. Hilton told the tour that local people were afraid of the two dogs. He said that one Post Office telegraph boy had been bitten, an errand boy was so frightened he did not deliver the goods at the house, and there had been a number of complaints about the dogs.
The officer added that he was “afraid of the dogs.” He said: “When I have occasion to go to see Mrs. Musgrave I always telephone the house first before I go.”
Wilfred Haigh, of Sheffield Road, Conisbrough, alleged that when he was going to work at 4.30 a.m. on December 15th, two dogs “bounced out” when he got to Musgrave’s gate and “knocked me off my feet.” The dogs, he alleged chased him for about 20 yards and he got over the cemetery wall.
Mrs. Musgrave said the dogs, Gyp, Monty and Kim were fastened up on the dates mentioned. She said she kept the dogs for protection.
She pleaded not guilty and claimed that someone had let one of the dogs out of the yard at night., and that her neighbour, who had been attacked, used a stick to beat the dogs.