A HEADLEY cyclist has warned users of Hankley Common to be wary of an irresponsible dog owner walking in the area after he was bitten on the leg and hospitalised last weekend.

Howard Evans, 64, was cycling on the bridleway about 100 yards south of the Stockbridge Pond car park at around 11.30am on Saturday, November 7, when he saw two middle-aged women and their two unleashed dogs coming towards him from the Tilford direction.

One of the women called for their dog, a pale blond-coloured retriever, but it ignored her call and attacked Howard’s left leg, latching firmly onto his calf, ripping his trou-sers and breaking the skin.

Howard used his bike as a barrier to break off the attack, and the retriever’s owner ran up the bridleway to put it on a leash.

But it was then that Howard’s story took a bizarre turn.

He said: “I asked for her address because her dog shredded my £100 trousers. She replied ‘no’, so I said I would take a photo of her instead. Then she ran off into the woods.

“For a woman in her 50s to be behaving like that was extremely strange. Her friend was mortified and deeply embarrassed. She apologised on her behalf, but also wouldn’t give me her name.”

Howard cycled to the other side of the common and again came across the two women on the bridleway. The retriever’s owner jumped behind a gorse bush to avoid having her photo taken.

Resigned to defeat, Howard cycled to the Stockbridge Pond car park and took a picture of a car with a dog cage in the boot he suspected belonged to one of the women.

With his leg still bleeding, Howard cycled home and drove to the Petersfield minor injuries unit for a tetanus shot and a course of antibiotics. He later reported the incident to the police.

Howard now feels other users of Hankley Common should be aware that someone is walking a dog in the area not fit for open public spaces without a muzzle.

“The dog bite did some damage to my trousers and leg, but if it had been my three-year-old granddaughter for instance it could have been catastrophic,” he said. “I am appalled.”