A 13-year-old girl attacked by a neighbour's dog is now traumatised by the sound of her own pet dog barking, her mother says.
The Te Puke girl was bitten on the top of her arm yesterday by a pitbull, but her mother said the dog's owner acted quickly to halt the attack.
"The owner was really good,'' the woman said.
She drove her injured daughter to hospital herself as emergency services were working to help a 15-year-old kiwifruit worker critically injured in a tractor accident at nearby Maketu.
The girl was discharged from Tauranga Hospital last night and was today resting at home, her mother said.
Although her injuries were not serious, the girl was traumatised by the attack.
She was now startled and frightened by the sound of the family's own dog barking, her mother said.
Maketu fire chief Shane Beech said the wounds to the girl's upper arm were typical for a dog bite.
The attack is believed to have been unprovoked.
"The dog has just latched on. From all we can gather, [the girl] was just walking past the driveway,'' he said.
Bruce Wills, animal services team leader at Western Bay of Plenty District Council, said the dog was a pitbull. It was to be destroyed.
"It's been held in our pound. We have no intention of re-homing it or anything else.
"We re-home [some] dogs from the pound ... but obviously if it comes in for biting people, that pretty much nullifies that,'' he said.
The dog was collected from its owners' home in in Maketu about 10am yesterday.
Mr Wills said the owners were co-operative when the dog was taken by animal control officers and the dog was not overly aggressive.
Te Puke police Senior Sergeant Deidre Lack said a prosecution might follow for the dog's owner.
