Animal Injury, Dog Bite Our dog bitten:who pays the vet bill?

[kate4boys]

My husband and I were walking our dog accross a field and we noticed a neighbour with her rescue Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier ( she'd only had it 3 weeks from a dogs home). We both put our dogs on leads and as we left the field into a lane we caught up with her to make poilte conversation. He was on a harness not a lead with choke collar or leather collar. We stood 2 metres apart and our dog was just standing waiting, hers was straining at the lead, but not growling or barking. Suddenly for no apparent reason he lunged at our dog and attacked our dog. The leads twisted for a few seconds and when we could finally get them apart he had bitten her so hard that he'd caused a puncture wound that has needed an operation and so far 4 visits to the vet to fix. Our neighbour is refusing to pay the £250 bill. Where do I go from here?
We live in the U.K. England.

 

[presutin]

If you have a small claims court in the town you live at in England, start there. Save all the receipts and gather all the testimonies you have from those who witnessed the incident. Hope your dogs is much better now!

 

[kate4boys]

Thank you for your speedy reply. I had hoped that we would be spared the stress of a small claims court but it seems that we may have to go down that route! Unfortunately we have no indedendant witnesses so it's her word against ours.......we'll see.
Thank you again,
Kate