Guide dog attacked in city street

A blind woman from Derbyshire says she is devastated after her guide dog was kicked in the street. Betty Gregson, 68, from Etwall was out shopping in Derby when a boy deliberately kicked her dog Lilly.

She said she realised something was wrong when the dog started whimpering. A passer-by then came up to her and told her what had happened. The dog was not seriously hurt, but Mrs Gregson has been left shaken and nervous by the attack.

She said: "Suddenly, I felt Lilly jump and she started to cry, so I stopped and I started to tell her off. "A lady came up to me and told me that those boys who just walked past, one of them deliberately kicked her."

She said Lilly played a massive part in her life and had been her independence since her husband died nine years ago.

"People just don't seem to care about anything or anybody these days. Who would want to go up to an animal that's looking after a blind person and just kick it? If she had refused to carry on working, then there's no way I could have got home - it takes away my independence totally," she said.