Mum angry at dog decision

IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

WOUNDED SON: Sam Stevens with her son Caine, who spent three days in Waikato Hospital with dog-bite injuries.

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A large dog which bit a Hamilton boy will not be put down because animal control staff say the child provoked the dog by pulling on its testicles.

The boy's mother Sam Stevens wants the dog destroyed after it caused facial injuries to her son Caine, 3, when it bit him at a Hamilton house on December 29. But Hamilton City Council has stood by the decision of its animal control staff, who say the neapolitan mastiff-cross dog was provoked.

Caine spent three nights at Waikato Hospital.

"He had cuts round his eye, lacerations on the inside of his mouth where his cheek had been separated from his jaw," Miss Stevens said. "There was damage to the nerves in his cheek which has caused his lip to droop, and he'll need surgery at a later date to rectify that." His worst injury was a 9cm cut on his cheek and chin.

Miss Stevens said Caine was attending a barbecue at the dog owner's Hamilton home.

The owner was the ex-boyfriend of Miss Stevens' sister, who had taken the child for a swim. Miss Stevens said her son was warned for "touching the dog inappropriately, and when he returned a second time the dog attacked him".

"They claimed he touched the dog's testicles."

She said she was "totally at a loss" as to why the dog had not been destroyed.

"They (animal control staff) have said the dog isn't a danger to anybody, but my son has been through a hell of a lot in the last week."

Miss Stevens was aware the dog was at the property, but had never encountered the animal before. Her son had previous dealings with other family dogs, including her own.

She had not been able to contact the dog's owner, and had laid a complaint with the city council because she believed it should have the animal put down.

Council spokeswoman Christine Watson said the biting incident had been voluntarily logged by the dog's owner, who also offered the dog for destruction.

As part of the animal control investigation, two independent witnesses said they had seen the boy deliberately leave the house and harm the dog by squeezing its testicles.

Animal control staff believed the dog had acted in its own defence, and after assessing its behaviour and "completely clean record" they decided it did not need to be put down.The investigation also revealed the child had been involved in two previous incidents of alleged animal cruelty.

Efforts by the Times to contact the dog's owner were unsuccessful.

Morrinsville neapolitan mastiff breeder Dion D'Amvers said the breed were "predictable", generally laid-back and a little lazy, and more protective than aggressive.