By ANGELA GREGORY
A South Auckland man has lost part of his upper lip, which was eaten by a pitbull terrier in yet another vicious dog attack.
Richard Kora was visiting a Clendon property on Sunday when an agitated pitbull rushed at him and latched on to his face.
"It was really rarked up. It came out charging," he said, gingerly fingering his facial wound at Middlemore Hospital yesterday.
Mr Kora had gone to the property to warn his partner, who was visiting a friend with their 2-year-old son, about the dog.
"I always knew that dog was there and didn't like my kid being around it."
Mr Kora kicked out at the dog, which he said was a pup, to keep its snapping jaws off him. But the dog jumped higher and bit his face.
"I just thought, 'Where's the axe?' " He wants the dog put down.
Mr Kora managed to prise the dog off and walked, with blood spurting from the wounds, to a nearby shop to call an ambulance.
He spent two hours in surgery at Middlemore Hospital, where plastic surgeon Alessandra Canal worked to reconstruct his lip.
Dr Canal said upper lips were difficult to repair and she had sent staff out to try to find the dog to see if the missing piece of lip could be retrieved by making it sick.
"I could have reattached it. I have done it before."
However, the pitbull could not be found.
Dr Canal said that despite her best efforts, using a skin graft from the back of Mr Kora's scalp and tissue from inside his mouth, the 26-year-old would be left with a permanently distorted top lip.
She was disappointed that after all the publicity about dangerous dogs, such attacks were still continuing.
Dr Canal said she would like to see pitbulls banned or spayed and heavy fines imposed on owners who did not control them. "I always ask people what kind of dog attacked them, and from my experience 50 per cent of dog bites are from pitbulls."
The Manukau City Council said yesterday that on average it received one report a day of an attack or a dangerous dog.
The Sunday incident brings to 14 the number of dog attacks reported in the Herald this year.
The pitbull terrier that attacked a 12-year-old boy and his sister in Ranui, Waitakere City, on Sunday afternoon was put down last night.
The boy is in the Starship hospital with moderate injuries.
Herald Feature: When dogs attack
How you can help
A trust fund has been opened for 7-year-old dog attack victim Carolina Anderson. You can send a cheque to: Carolina Anderson Trust Account, BNZ, PO Box 46-294, Herne Bay, or donate over the internet to BNZ account number 020 248 000 3002-000.
The Herald is backing an appeal to raise money for a $150,000 operating-room microscope for Middlemore's plastic surgery unit. The microscope is essential in minute plastic surgery work such as reattaching nerves. Middlemore has two, used on Carolina Anderson and the victims of the Pipiroa sword attack, but they need replacing. Donations can be sent to: The Microsurgery Appeal, Editorial Department, New Zealand Herald, PO Box 706, Auckland.
