Witnesses say child provoked dog's attack

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, three, 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," Sam 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.

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

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."

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 harm the dog by squeezing its testicles.

- © Fairfax NZ News