Campaign pleads for dog's life

CAMPAIGNERS today launched a last-ditch attempt to save a dog under a sentence of death following a three-year dispute over its identity, writes Graham Moorby.

The dog, Otis, is due to be destroyed after being seized under the Dangerous Dogs Act by police who believed he was a pit-bull terrier.

But campaigners, who will hand in a petition at Limehouse police station in east London this morning, claim he is a great dane cross.

A spokesman for the Endangered Dogs Association said: 'Four leading dog experts have stated Otis to be a cross'

Police saw Otis unmuzzled in the car of his owner, Harry Bates, in 1991. Mr Bates was convicted of having an unmuzzled pit-bull terrier in public before dog experts provided evidence that Otis was a great dane cross.

Scotland Yard said: 'We are obliged to carry out the destruction order because it was made by a court.'