Jacob Bowler and his dog Sir Smoothie Redman. Photo / Facebook
A judge has ordered proof of death after a dog called Sir Smoothie mauled a woman’s arm to the bone and then disappeared.
Sir Smoothie’s owner, Jacob Bowler, appeared in court yesterday afternoon to face charges of owning a dog that attacked a person in August last year.
However, after the incident, which saw a dog walker’s arm bitten so badly it caused a 10 centimetre laceration that required two surgeries, Bowler’s lawyer said Bowler’s stepfather had destroyed the dog.
But despite claims the Dogue de Bordeaux was euthanised and then cremated, there’s no evidence it actually was.
“To this day the council does not know where Sir Smoothie is,” Judge Lance Rowe said.
“In fact the explanation was that the dog had been destroyed and cremated at a place that keeps records ... and there is no record.”
Rowe said Bowler would need to produce proof that the dog was dead, and if it wasn’t then he needed to bring it to the council so that they could then destroy it.
Bowler appeared for sentence in the Palmerston North District Court for one charge of owning a dog that attacked a person, owning a dog that caused injury and failing to register the pedigree dog whose full name was Sir Smoothie Redman.
According to the summary of facts a woman left her Palmerston North home in August last year to walk her own dog and as she passed the yard where Sir Smoothie and another dog were housed they managed to unlatch the gate and follow her.
Despite fleeing to a neighbouring property Sir Smoothie and and the other dog continued to follow her and began barking at her. Several neighbours came to her aid but not before Sir Smoothie bit her arm.
Neighbours attempted to distract the two escaped dogs with treats while one person used a log to keep them at a distance.
Eventually, they left and the woman was given first aid before being taken to hospital.
Dog control officers then visited Bowler’s address several times where Sir Smoothie was nowhere to be found and Bowler declined to give a statement.
“Her injuries were dreadful ... they were serious,” Judge Rowe said in sentencing Bowler to five months’ community detention yesterday as well as a $300 fine for failing to register the animal.
“She suffered severe harm as a result of this attack.”
Rowe said Bowler’s actions following the incident had been at odds with his apparent uncooperativeness with the council as he’d engaged in restorative justice with the dog’s victim and was clearly remorseful about what had happened.
In fact, prosecutor on behalf of Palmerston North City Council, Olivia Sinnema, told the court that the victim hoped Bowler’s sentence wasn’t too heavy-handed.
Despite that Rowe said he was bound by the law to order Sir Smoothie’s destruction, if he hadn’t been already immediately following the incident.
“Where I’m at today is that there’s no evidence before me that the dog has been destroyed,” he said.
“If Sir Smoothie Redman is alive you are obliged to surrender him for destruction.”
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
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