Council to investigate savage dog attack in city

The Invercargill City Council is investigating a savage dog attack on two people in Centre St on Saturday night.

Inspector Barry Taylor, of Invercargill, said police were called after a 41-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman arrived at Southland Hospital emergency department to have dog bites treated.

The Southland Times understands the man suffered about 36 dog bites to his upper torso, head and neck during the attack by a rottweiler, and the woman suffered bites on her leg and hip.

Mr Taylor said police were notified about the attack when the pair sought help at the emergency department.

Police understood a group of people had congregated in Centre St shortly before the attack about 10pm on Saturday.

He was unsure of details of the gathering and said the complaint had been handed to the Invercargill City Council to investigate.

Council environmental and planning services director William Watt said the council had moved swiftly to classify the dog as menacing, which meant it had to be muzzled when in public and securely fenced.

Sworn evidence was required before the dog could be classified as dangerous.

A dangerous classification would mean the dog would have to be neutered, he said.

An investigation would be carried out to establish if the owner should be prosecuted.

If the matter went to court then -- depending on the outcome of the prosecution -- an order could be made that the dog be destroyed, Mr Watt said. "We can't just summarily execute dogs." He said he supported registering owners as well as dogs, a suggestion that arose as the Government looked at tightening dog control legislation.

"We see a real pattern between personality (of owners) and dog types.

"The Government is looking at registration of dog owners and that could be a good thing.

"There's some people that shouldn't own dogs and some types of dogs that shouldn't be on this planet." In September the Gore District Council advocated the mandatory euthanasia of dogs caught wandering and mandatory sterilisation of certain breeds.

The extreme measures were included in a letter to the Internal Affairs Department's local government and community policy group after the council was invited to comment on legislative and non-legislative options to improve public safety around dogs.