Mammoth surgery after dog attack

A five-year-old girl who suffered "potentially life threatening injuries" after being mauled by two dogs in eastern Bay of Plenty yesterday is recovering after undergoing 10 hours of surgery.

A team off experts led by plastic surgeon Adam Greenbaum worked throughout the night treating the girl's severe facial injuries.

She was flown to the hospital with multiple cuts to her face after she was attacked by a pitbull and a staffordshire bull terrier yesterday afternoon.

The girl and her mother had been visiting a house in Taneatua, 13km south of Whakatane when the owner let out the animals out to meet them and they attacked the girl, Whakatane District Council chief executive Diane Turner said.

The girl's mother was also injured trying to protect her daughter.

"I understand she wasn't as badly injured as her little girl," Ms Turner told Radio New Zealand The owners had been cooperating with police and the council, while the dogs were in council custody and were likely to be destroyed.

Dangerous dogs had been an issue for the council, Mrs Turner said.

"There's a reasonable number of dangerous dogs and breeds that are not very good with people."

Mr Greenbaum, who recently moved to New Zealand from England, said the girl's injuries were extensive.

"They were potentially life-threatening."

He said that he had seen many dog bite injuries in the UK.

"Banning the dogs in the UK doesn't seem to have changed them.

"People simply interbreed them and use them as weapons to intimidate people."

The dogs are due to be destroyed today.

The girl was the second person to be the victim of a dog attack this week.

Former All White and current Wellington provincial soccer coach Stu Jacobs was attacked by an unrestrained bullmastiff on Thursday.

Jacobs had been holding a coaching clinic for young children at Wellington's Rongotai College when he saw the dog attack what appeared to be a labrador being walked on a leash.

He said he noticed the owner of the labrador was struggling with the situation so he went over and helped try to separate the animals.

Jacobs was bitten on the ankle, forearm and thumb and required 34 stitches.