Maulings spark call to train dog owners

Rodney Hide. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Animal experts are urging improved education of dog owners form a major part of the Government's review on dog controls.

Hawkes Bay Police reported a 3-year-old girl nearly lost her eye after being attacked by a dog in Wairoa on Sunday, the second attack this week.

She required 20 stitches after she was set upon in the garden of a family friend's property. She was in a stable condition in Hawkes Bay Hospital and was expected to be discharged today.

The attack followed a mauling of a 5-year-old girl from Taneatua, near Whakatane, by two Staffordshire crosses.

She required 10 hours of surgery to repair cuts to most of her body.

The dogs in both attacks have been destroyed.

A review of dog laws will begin in July, but Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said last year it will not be heavily influenced by the emotions surrounding high-profile individual dog attacks.

A spokesman for Mr Hide said the minister did not want the review to be reactive.

"We want to look at things in an objective, reasonable manner. Recent and subsequent dog attacks will be taken into account, but are only one factor."

When the review was announced in October, Mr Hide said legislation was an "onerous muddle", and too much of it was created through emotion after dog maulings.

He said the review needed to find a balance between public demands and owners' responsibilities, and he hoped councils would emphasise freedom, not restriction, in dog laws.

Jason Gardiner, a security guard who helped with the pickup of the Staffordshire crosses in Taneatua, said education was key to the review.

"You can't blame the breed, or ban certain breeds of dog, it just doesn't work. These animals had not had enough contact with people, and became defensive when they saw a new child. Dog owners need education."

New Zealand Kennel Club spokesman Phil Lyth said the Government's review needed more urgency - the association wanted it to be finished this year instead of next.

Mr Lyth supported National Party MP Simon Bridges' draft for a private member's bill which called for tougher penalties for wilful ill-treatment of animals. "Ill-treatment of animals can include the sort of neglect which leads to attacks on humans - it's not dissimilar territory."