Pet gave its life to save owner

By Catherine Masters

Lorraine Skinner lies exhausted in her Middlemore Hospital bed, unsure if her chewed, mangled leg will make it.

Her beloved bitser dog Maestro is already dead and buried in her Puhoi garden, fatally mauled while trying to protect her from two marauding dogs which sank their teeth into her last Friday.

Without Maestro's intervention, her family believes she too would be dead.

She has undergone a series of lengthy operations to rebuild her shattered lower leg and yesterday was too upset to talk about what happened - but her husband, Gerard Skinner, was willing.

The former policeman who took his family to Puhoi from Huntly four years ago for a better lifestyle is angry it happened at all and livid that vicious dogs are still legal in New Zealand.

He said he believed the dogs were pit bull terriers or crosses and he wants politicians to get off their backsides and ban dangerous dogs now.

Inertia was blamed last year for delays in the introduction of measures to control dangerous dogs after the death of Te Puke man Koro Dinsdale in 1997.

The Minister of Local Government, Tony Ryall, said yesterday that officials at the Department of Internal Affairs were drafting legislation to toughen up the control of dangerous dogs. He hoped to introduce it into the House this year.

Mr Skinner told how his wife had been walking to visit her parents when the two dogs attacked for the second time in a month.

Maestro had run off ahead but ran back when Mrs Skinner screamed in agony.
She managed to drag herself away, leaving Maestro - a hero in the family's eyes - to take the brunt of the attack.

He was found dead, covered in bite marks. His killers were shot when the police arrived.

On Saturday, Mrs Skinner underwent almost five hours of surgery and on Monday endured a further six.

Now she has to lie still for five days to see whether skin grafts take.

Police say they have yet to speak to the owner of the dogs but further investigations are underway and charges are possible.