[Missing Credit]Bite marks on the victim's leg. A dog who bit a Dunedin woman in her own backyard will remain classified as menacing despite the owner’s belief authorities got the wrong animal. In its decision this week, a Dunedin City Council hearing committee questioned whether a menacing classification was severe enough and whether a dangerous classification would be more appropriate, but animal control staff advised the circumstances did not meet the required criteria. Safire Stenerson received a notice in May classifying her 7-year-old American Staffordshire terrier cross, Misty, as menacing after the dog attacked a neighbour. Ms Stenerson appealed the decision and said the council had the wrong dog and Misty was ‘‘the friendliest dog out”. ‘‘Misty is NOT a menace [sic] dog at all, and the only menace seems to be the liars at the DCC,’’ she said in an email to the council. The committee noted the bite had gone through the victim’s cardigan and jacket, the event was “traumatising” for her and she had lost two days of income as a result of the attack. It upheld the animal control team’s decision to class Misty as menacing, saying it was “just and reasonable in the circumstances”. Ms Stenerson did not attend a hearing on July 7 at which the matter was discussed. The victim, who was bitten four times by Misty, told the hearing her concerns about the dog. The 7.50am attack on May 20 happened when the dog came on to her property from a neighbour’s place through a gap in a hedge, she said. She suffered multiple puncture wounds to her hand, arm and leg. She was most angry about how easily it could have been her child who was attacked, she told the committee. ‘‘I send him out to the garden shed to get his bike [about that time] every morning,’’ she said. The morning of the attack she had just got home from a night shift and had given her son breakfast when she saw movement outside. She went outside and saw the dog on her property. It looked at her and bared its teeth. She put her arm up and it lunged at her. ‘‘It was all over from there. I was in shock, I didn’t move, I didn’t know what to do.’’ A menacing dog classification requires the dog to be muzzled and on a leash in public and be neutered. An order had also been made for the property where Misty lived to be fully fenced. A dangerous dog classification is similar to a menacing one, but the registration fee is 50% higher than that for a standard dog and the dog is unable to be sold or given away without the written consent of the council. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
