Brian Rudman: Knives? It's the killer dogs that scare me

Pitbulls have been blamed for almost all the latest attacks - and it's time lawmakers took the dog menace seriously. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Justice Minister Simon Power has rushed to appease the law and order brigade, by calling for a report re-examining knife crime laws.

This follows quickly on the heels of the slaying of an Auckland taxi driver, and comments from Justice Raynor Asher during the sentencing of a another knife murderer.

Mr Power said: "We need to make sure our laws are sending a message to young people that it's totally unacceptable to have knives in public places and that there will be consequences if this happens."

Up to two years in prison, which is the penalty under the Crimes Act for carrying a knife in a public place without a reasonable excuse, sounds like a pretty severe warning already, but as a minister, I guess you have to sound tough when "action" is required.

This comes hard on the heels of parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, falling over themselves to be first to back Tauranga MP Simon Bridges' member's bill to increase maximum sentences for animal cruelty offences from three to five years' imprisonment.

This was the kneejerk response to the bizarre execution killing of 33 dogs and puppies in a Wellsford quarry.

But after a string of appalling attacks by pitbulls in recent days, what do we get from our leader? Nothing but excuses for the poor dogs and how badly they must have been brought up.

No doubt upbringing and training plays its part, though it's ironic that when this explanation is applied to young human wrongdoers, the very people now clamouring for tougher laws against knife carriers and animal abusers, dismiss the reasoning as "bleeding heart liberalism".

Luckily the latest pitbull attack didn't involve people. A dog tunnelled under a barbed wire and electrified fence to attack a flock of 30 lambs on a Warkworth farm.

Eight were injured and three had to be shot. Yet the police and Rodney District Council officials allowed the dog to be given back to its owner. They said it posed a minimum risk of attacking again because it lived on a fenced property.

The day before, a Tauranga man received "pretty horrific" injuries after being attacked by two of his own "pitbull type" dogs.

In late January, a 5-year-old girl visiting a neighbour in Taneatua was savaged by a pitbull and a Staffordshire bull terrier, and had her face ripped apart. The same day, a 3-year-old nearly lost her eye after being set upon by a pitbull in a family friend's property in Wairoa.

Without dismissing concerns over knife laws and animal cruelty, if Mr Power really wanted to make New Zealand a safer place for humans, he'd be cracking down on dogs and their owners.

The most recent figures on the Accident Compensation Corporation website relating to dog bites is dated 2003 and records 8677 claims requiring medical attention. Since then it's got worse.

In the Bay of Plenty Times last week, Tauranga SPCA manager John Esdaile has tracked down more recent figures. "ACC has paid a staggering $10 million to just under 50,000 dog-bite victims in the past five years."

He says only a quarter of these attacks will have been reported to authorities. Last year alone, 2500 Aucklanders made claims to ACC after dog attacks.

He quotes Ministry of Health figures recording 462 hospital admissions for dog bites in 2008, 38 involving babies and 43 on children under 5. The worst three areas were Canterbury with 71, Counties-Manukau 65 and Waitemata 52.

Yet this Government seems to be more concerned for the dog than the victim. A few months back, when a South Auckland man killed his pitbull with a blow to the head, then began cooking it in an umu, the SPCA and the Minister of Agriculture, David Carter, were outraged.

The dog had a history of nipping at visitors, yet Mr Carter fulminated away about the need for new citizens to adopt our cultural values. In that case, destroying a dangerous dog seems like a cultural value we would be well-advised to borrow from the new citizen.

I'd go further and ban the whole breed and anything that looks or behaves like one.

It seems a farce that just before Christmas, the Bay of Islands SPCA was advertising for adoption for $275, a "companion dog" who "loves a soft warm bed and her tummy rubbed". The advertisement didn't mention it was a 1-year-old pitbull, classified by the local council as a menacing dog needing to be leashed and muzzled in public.

In 2004, new dog control laws banned the importation of American pitbull terriers, dogo argentinos, Brazilian filas and Japanese tosas, but not the ownership of them.

It also created a new category of "menacing" which is defined as a dog that poses a threat to a person or animal because of any observed behaviour or because of any characteristics typically associated with the breed or type.

A menacing dog must be muzzled and on a leash in public. Some councils have also ordered such dogs neutered.

The problem is, these potential killers still attack visitors to their home territories, and they escape. After the recent string of attacks - almost all blamed on pitbulls - it's time our lawmakers took the menace seriously. For a start the four named breeds - all created for fighting purposes - should be eradicated.

Then, to borrow Mr Power's statement on knife carriers, we need to make sure our laws are sending a message to dog owners that it's totally unacceptable to have dogs that bite people and that there will be consequences if this happens.