IT WAS an ideal opportunity for the local MP to shore up his personal vote as he paraded his extended family through the constituency’s county show.
But Bert, his Jack Russell terrier, had other ideas.
As Andrew Turner, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, strolled through the crowds, Bert broke free from his lead and sank his teeth into Socks, a polecat being taken for a walk near by.
Despite the efforts of four people equipped with a bucket of cold water, nine-year-old Bert savagely shook Socks from side to side.
By the time he was forced to relinquish his grip, it was too late. Socks was so badly injured by the mauling that a vet had to put him down.
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Mr Turner, the Shadow Minister for Charities, apologised to Socks’s owner Patricia Price, a member of the island’s ferret club. He said his pet was usually “lovely and affectionate”.
“Terriers were bred to catch rats, rabbits and similar animals,” he said. “You can’t train them out of it.”
Miss Price, 52, a teacher from East Cowes, was resigned about the mauling her beloved four-year-old Socks had received, saying it was an unfortunate accident. She said she recognised that Bert was only obeying his instincts.
Mr Turner said there was little he could do to stop Bert once he caught sight of Socks, who was being exercised on a harness.
He told The Daily Telegraph that as he emerged from a crowded tent Bert’s lead had become entangled with that of his other dog Pickles. “I was trying to disentangle them and Bert obviously felt the lead go slack at the same time as he saw the polecat about 20 yards away. He was on to it before I could stop him.”
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Miss Price, who owns four ferrets which she had been preparing to race in the show’s ferret racing event, said that she instantly knew who her pet’s attacker was.
“I saw the dog and knew whose it was. It had the polecat in his mouth and was shaking it.
“By the second shake it was too late. The shock had overpowered Socks’s mental abilities. One fellow managed to get his hand inside the dog’s mouth but could not get him to release his grip. The dog’s instincts just took over and you can’t blame him for that.
“Many people knew Socks because he was a bit different. He was quite unusual in that he had distinctive white feet and we took him to all the shows. He was a well-loved pet and enjoyed running on his lead.”
The incident was a dramatic fall from grace for Bert, who two years ago had won the terrier racing competition at the annual Agricultural Society show.
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Mr Turner is undoubtedly thankful that his comfortable 13,000 majority in the constituency should ensure that the incident does not lead to his electoral decapitation.
Polecats mark their territory with a foul smell emitted from scent glands at the base of their tail, which led to the term being used in Shakespearean times to describe someone of an unpleasant character.
They were once heavily persecuted by gamekeepers on account of their well-earned reputation for killing chickens.
Unfortunately for Socks, their ability to see off a Jack Russell terrier is not as well-honed.