NEW ZEALAND -- An experienced dog control officer is recovering after being seriously injured in a pit bull mauling.
Murray Williams' mouth was torn open to the chin when the dog attacked him inside a house in New Plymouth on Wednesday.
Mr Williams was delivering documents to the house concerning another dog on the property that had been destroyed after killing a neighbour's poodle.
He was treated at Taranaki Base Hospital before being transferred to Waikato Hospital for surgery.
Mr Williams, who has now returned home and is recovering well, declined to speak to the Taranaki Daily News about the attack.
New Plymouth District Council spokeswoman Cathy Thurston said a full investigation was under way and the matter has been referred to the police.
The pit bull which attacked Mr Williams has been impounded and will probably also be destroyed.
Senior Sergeant Allan Whaley said police are waiting to interview Mr Williams and will be considering relevant criminal charges.
The pit bull and the poodle killer had been at the centre of an armed offenders squad callout to an Okato house in July when it was initially thought shots were fired during a domestic incident. The Taranaki Daily News understands the dogs attacked a woman during the incident.
The dogs were released to a Welbourn address after the callout.
Another dog from the Welbourn porperty – also a pit bull – was handed over to authorities and put down after killing a poodle last Thursday.
Kim Olsen was heading to the Te Henui walkway and had just crossed the road from her Durham Ave home with her two dogs, Danny and Coco, when she saw the pit bull advance from an open gate and lunge for the smaller dog.
"He was just dead set on Danny. I don't know if it was because he was another male dog or what, but he went straight for him," she said.
Miss Olsen said she tried to rescue her eight-year-old, three-kilogram toy poodle but the pit bull had sunk its teeth into Danny's side and was tearing his insides out.
The pitbull's owner came out of the house and prised its jaws off Danny.
A neighbour, Kay Taylor, said she heard Miss Olsen screaming and opened the door to see her driveway awash with blood.
Mrs Taylor drove them to the vet where the poodle was stitched up and said to be doing well before he died from his injuries on Saturday morning.
When the Taranaki Daily News visited Durham Ave, there was no sign of the third dog or its owners at the residence.
Other neighbours said the people living in the rented house had only been there for a couple of months and usually kept the dogs locked up inside, but neither had been seen in the days following the attack on Mr Williams.
It is unknown whether the owners had a permit to have three dogs on their property when the bylaw allows only two.
A Waitara woman was also left shaken after a dog attack yesterday.
The woman was walking her Chihuahua along Centennial Ave about 11.30am when a brown staffy type dog rushed at them, Constable Rhys Connell said. "It was nothing too serious. She suffered a few scratches and a few bruises but nothing broke the skin," Mr Connell said. "She was just quite shaken up."
There are 9576 dogs registered in the New Plymouth District, and dog control officers were called out 390 times during 2010-2011 to attend to aggressive dogs.
The council has impounded 875 dogs since June last year and destroyed 242 of those with the rest being returned to their owners.
(Taranaki Daily News - Sept 24, 2011)
