The founder of the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary has defended rottweiler dogs - despite two horrific attacks on young children in the last week.

Five-month-old Cadey-Lee Deacon was mauled to death by two rottweilers in Leicester on Saturday. And 14-month-old Harvey Lawrence was also savaged in West Sussex on Monday.

But 90-year-old Margaret Gray, who founded the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary in the 1960s, does not believe rottweilers deserve to be dubbed 'devil dogs'.

Miss Gray, from North Oxford, has looked after the dogs and seen them adopted by families with no problems.

She said: "I want to make it clear that I am not minimising whatsoever these two horrific incidents that have occurred - but if rottweilers are brought up as ordinary dogs, they will not behave like this."

Stressing that she was not commenting on either case, Miss Gray said problems with rottweilers could come from their breeding.

She said: "So many people get rottweilers as protection, as some kind of guard dog - that's when they can attack people. If they are brought up as ordinary dogs, there shouldn't be any problems."

A number of rottweilers have gone through the animal sanctuary, based in Stadhampton, over the years and Miss Gray said there had never been problems.

She said that one person had taken a rottweiler and then came back the following year for another one.

Miss Gray added: "I want to say again that I'm not taking anything away from the horror of what happened in the two incidents - I just don't want the whole breed condemned."

Miss Gray moved to Oxfordshire in 1945 and, after physiotherapist jobs at the Wingfield Hospital and the Radcliffe Infirmary, moved into animal care.

She became secretary for the RSPCA at Headington and started the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary Society in June 1967.