In a decision released on Friday, Milo, an American Staffordshire dog originally bred in Dunedin, was classified by an appeal panel of the Queenstown Lakes District Council to be a dangerous dog under the Dog Control Act 1996.
The decision was in relation to an incident in which Milo allegedly bit a man.
Milo was being walked by a friend of the owner.
Milo allegedly inadvertently bit a man after lunging at a dog called Max, after a fight between the two dogs had been broken up.
The man required surgery in Invercargill and had to take seven weeks off work while he healed.
Despite a strong appeal from his owner, Thomas Barta, the panellists agreed that Milo constituted a threat and panel members remarked "the severity of the bite also suggested a dog with a very strong jaw".
In his presentation to the panel, Mr Barta gave details about Milo’s background and personality.
He said he understood Max had a history of attacks and he questioned Max’s owner’s sense of responsibility because he had observed many instances of Max wandering off his lead.
He believed that the incident would have been avoided if Max had been on a lead or muzzled, he said.
The person injured had been trying to break up the dog fight and had been bitten as a result, but Mr Barta questioned the evidence proving that it was Milo who had attacked, suggesting it could equally have been Max.
He observed that dog fights happened very quickly and it was often difficult to determine who was who.
In the notes of the report it states that if a dog is classified as dangerous under section 31, the owner must ensure the dog is kept within a securely fenced portion of the owner’s property that it is not necessary to enter, and must not allow the dog to be in any public place or in any private way, except when confined completely within a vehicle or cage, without being muzzled and controlled on a leash. The owner must produce to the territorial authority a veterinarian’s certificate certifying the dog is neutered.
