Dogs destroyed after attack on young girl

Two dogs, similar to the pitbull breed pictured, have been destroyed after they attacked a five-year-old girl. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Two dogs which attacked a five-year-old girl in the eastern Bay of Plenty yesterday have been destroyed.

The girl suffered "potentially life threatening injuries" in the attack and was today recovering after undergoing 10 hours of surgery.

She was flown to Waikato Hospital with multiple cuts to her face, and a team of experts led by plastic surgeon Adam Greenbaum worked throughout the night treating her severe facial injuries.

She was in a ward in stable condition this afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said.

"She's obviously still in a great deal of pain but recovering well."

Whakatane police Sergeant Ray Wylie said the dogs were surrendered to animal control and had been destroyed.

A Whakatane District Council spokesman said the dogs were both pitbull-bulldog crossbreeds.

The girl and her father had been visiting a house in Taneatua, 13km south of Whakatane, when the owner let out the animals out to meet them and they attacked the girl, Whakatane District Council chief executive Diane Turner said.

The owner had been cooperating with police and the council.

Mr Wylie said the dog's owner placed her body over the girl during the attack to prevent further injury, before the girl's father removed the dogs.

Mr Greenbaum, who recently moved to New Zealand from England, said the girl's injuries were extensive.

"They were potentially life-threatening."

He said that he had seen many dog bite injuries in the UK.

"Banning the dogs in the UK doesn't seem to have changed them.

"People simply interbreed them and use them as weapons to intimidate people."

Dangerous dogs had been an issue for the council, Mrs Turner said.

"There's a reasonable number of dangerous dogs and breeds that are not very good with people."

The attack was the second in a week after former All White and current Wellington provincial soccer coach Stu Jacobs was attacked Thursday by an unrestrained bullmastiff as he tried to separate it from a labrador it had been struggling with.

Mr Jacobs was bitten on the ankle, forearm and thumb and required 34 stitches.

- NZPA