Judge orders menacing dog destroyed after unprovoked attack on Wellington street

A judge has now ordered Reign, an American Pitbull terrier cross, be put down. Photo / Supplied.

A judge has ordered a menacing dog be put down after it bit a man in an unprovoked attack on a Wellington street.

Wellington District Court heard Reign - an American pitbull terrier cross - was already on a short leash, having been declared a menacing dog in 2018 and should not have been out in the public without a muzzle.

Reign’s owner Nicholas Gray failed to show up to court to defend two charges of failing to muzzle a menacing dog and owning a dog that attacked a person.

The victim told the court on the evening of July 29 last year he got out of his car in the Wellington suburb of Thorndon. As he stepped onto the footpath he noticed a man standing with a dog on a leash.

He described the dog as large, with short hair and a muscular build. The animal appeared agitated and was moving in a chaotic way, lurching at him and biting him, he said.

Realising he’d been bitten, the man held up his left hand to show the man, who said, “Oh, he got you did he?”

The man walked off. The victim, in a state of shock, did not follow him.

The man went to Wellington Hospital where he was treated for a 2cm cut to his index finger, a tetanus shot and antibiotics. He reported the incident to Wellington City Council.

A month later in a carpark across the road from where the attack occurred, the man noticed the same dog, sitting inside a car. Again, he thought the dog seemed agitated. Certain the dog was the one who’d bitten him, he took photos of the dog and its owner when he returned to the car. He forwarded the photographs to the council.

Animal control officer Stephanie Simon told the court microchipping showed the dog was Reign and Gray was its owner.

In 2018, Reign was classed as a menacing dog and should not have been out in public without a muzzle, she said. Reign was seized by dog control officers and had been in the pound since September 2023, where he continued to be aggressive.

In a letter tendered to the court and written after Reign was impounded, Gray acknowledged the dog’s aggressive nature and said he tried to have him muzzled in public and was trying to find a dog trainer to work on its behaviour.

Council lawyer Katherine Lee told the court it was the second time Gray had faced charges under the Dog Control Act. Previously, he was fined $250 and while the man’s injury was at the lower end, she urged the court to impose a larger fine.

Judge Nicola Wills found the council had proved its case, convicting Gray of both charges and fining him $350.

She said there were no exceptional circumstances that prevented her from ordering Reign’s destruction.

“It’s a sad outcome to order the destruction of Reign ... it really is a reflection on Gray’s lack of appropriate training that we are in this position,” she said.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media advisor at the Ministry of Justice.