Editorial: Time for tough dog legislation

If you were the owner of a much-loved family pet savaged to death by a pitbull-cross, there would be little you could imagine that would be more horrific.

What would be worse, says Dannevirke's Robyn Cornish, whose little chihuahua Pixie was killed by a pitbull-cross last week, would be a similar savage attack on a child.

"Something needs to be done about these sort of dogs," she told the Dannevirke News. "A collar and lead does nothing when a dog like that decides to attack. At the very least it should have been in a harness. Obviously now that dog has got a tendency to kill. God, can you imagine what it'd be like if it decided to lunge at a child?"

Unfortunately, none of us have to look far to see Robyn Cornish's fear of an attack on a child realised.

On Christmas morning, 15-month-old Ozyris Beeching of Edgecumbe wandered into the neigbouring property with his new toy lawnmower and was savaged by a pitbull.

The Beechings had complained about the dog because they knew by its behaviour that an attack was likely.

Ozyris had been inside the house playing with toys one minute and then quietly wandered off with his lawnmower. He ended up in Whakatane Hospital needing stitches to his face and ear after the bloody attack. The dog had to be prised off the little boy and attacked its owner in the process.

It is sickening stuff and one wonders why more can not be done to prevent such attacks by breeds and cross breeds known for such violent behaviour.

Fans of pure-breed pitbulls say the problem is with owners, not the dogs. That may well be the case and if it is, the amount of attacks on children and other animals in New Zealand suggests we have a lot of problem owners.

Hastings District Council declared war on dangerous dogs in 2010 and introduced a range of tougher measures which had the mayor declaring this year that dog attacks had halved as a result.

More resource was put into dog control, the council introduced a new dog bylaw requiring all dogs to be leashed in public urban areas, and there was a noticeable increase of dangerous dogs muzzled in public.

But where is the government legislation reflecting the public's abhorrence of these attacks on children and other animals?

Sure, dog registration and control is a local government responsibility but that should not stop the Government getting tough. It could, for a start, legislate to require that all pitbulls and pitbull crosses must be muzzled and on a leash in public.

Fans of the breed could console themselves with the knowledge that we would all be better protected from bad owners.