A woman claims she was bitten by her neighbour’s dog, triggering a response by the council to classify the pet as menacing. PHOTO: SUPPLIED How easily it could have been her young son instead of her still chills a Dunedin woman bitten four times during a dog attack in her garden. The dog came on to her property from a neighbour’s place through a gap in a hedge, then tried to attack her husband and subsequently bit a dog control officer. The 7-year-old American Staffordshire terrier cross, Misty, was classified as menacing by the city council but its owner, Safire Stenersen, appealed the decision and a councillor committee met yesterday to consider the appeal. The woman recounted for the committee — Crs Mandy Mayhem, Doug Hall and Lee Vandervis — the 7.50am May 20 attack that resulted in multiple puncture wounds to her hand, arm and leg. But what she was more angry about than anything was how easily it could have been her child who was attacked, she said. ‘‘I send him out to the garden shed to get his bike [about that time] every morning.’’ 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 arm. ‘‘It was all over from there. I was in shock, I didn’t move, I didn’t know what to do.’’ She described how the dog’s teeth punctured her skin so deep, through a work cardigan and a rain jacket, that she had scars and still had muscle tenderness in her arm and pain in her knee. Her son had only just started going back into the garden because he had been scared the dog would be there, she said. Her husband, who returned home minutes after his wife called, told the committee he found her with blood all over her hands, upset and shaking. He grabbed a baseball bat and went outside to find the animal trying to get back in through a hole that had been chewed in some temporary wire fencing and put his foot up to stop it, at which point it bit on to his boot. He punched it and it let go. ‘‘It was all I could think of to do to get it off me.’’ Ms Stenersen, who declined to attend yesterday’s hearing, suggested in her appeal it had not been her dog, but there was only one property it could have come from, the couple said. They had only met their neighbour once, when the husband went to retrieve a ball. Cr Hall asked staff why the decision was to classify Misty as menacing rather than prosecute and was told that was decided after inputting multiple factors into a standardised dog control assessment matrix used to determine threat levels (such as ‘‘menacing’’ or ‘‘dangerous’’) and decide on prosecution outcomes. Cr Mayhem asked in what circumstances a dog would be seized and destroyed and staff said only if an attack was in progress or as the result of a prosecution through the court. She then expressed concern for the family. ‘‘If it had been [your son] that had gone into the garden that day, it could have been a much more grim outcome. I am very sorry this happened to you.’’ If classified as menacing Misty would have to wear a muzzle when in public and be neutered. An order has been made to fix any gaps in the fence at the property where Misty lives by July 27. Council staff recommended the committee uphold the decision to classify Misty as menacing. The committee is deliberating its decision.
