Memories of Tyra's short life flood back, along with the tears, every time 81-year-old Mrs Kuehne hears of someone else being savaged by a dog.
There were 3,017 human victims and 4,729 animal victims of 5,140 dog attacks reported to councils across the state in the 2010/2011 financial year.
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| Sonja Kuehne's grand daughter Tyra was mauled to death by a neighbour's dangerous dogs seven years ago. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: The Daily Telegraph |
This week alone there were three reported attacks, including one on a jogger in Ashcroft, in Sydney's southwest, who suffered "some of the worst injuries" attending paramedics had ever seen.
"When something like that happens it brings it all back to me and it makes me so angry because we don't seem to have learned anything and done anything to stop dangerous dogs," Mrs Kuehne said.
After Tyra was torn to shreds by her neighbour's pig-hunting dogs (described in other articles as mastiff mixes and boxer mixes) when she wandered into their yard at Warren in the state's northwest in 2006, the then-government pledged to fix the faults in dog laws.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics reported that, between 2008 and 2012, 3682 charges had been laid under the Companion Animals Act but only 1571 convictions recorded, the most serious penalties being two suspended sentences, despite penalties of up to two years jail and $55,000 fines.
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| Two of the four dogs which mauled Tyra to death |
Seven years after Tyra's death, 16 recommendations on ways to improve the management of dangerous dogs have been made by the Companion Animals Taskforce.
They include giving frustrated councils the power to declare dogs "potentially dangerous" before they have bitten anyone.
Just rushing at someone could be enough for the owner to be ordered to lock the dogs in a childproof enclosure and take them for "behavioural training" before they could be certified safe, something that would have saved Tyra Kuehne's life.
While the proposals have been welcomed by attack victims, councils, the RSPCA and the Australian Veterinary Association, three months after the report was handed to him, Local Government Minister Don Page said yesterday he was still "considering" it.
The previous day a german shepherd attacked a man and his Jack Russell - Pug mix as he sat on the veranda of his Toongabbie home.
In Newcastle, Brittany Carter, who has autism, was walking her maltese terrier Lilly when they were attacked by a german shepherd off the lead.
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| Brittany Carter, her mother, Lisa Carter, and dog Lilly. |
Her mother Lisa Carter said: "The scars on her hands and arms will heal but mentally it has shattered her. She won't go out now. She has lost all her confidence
"Something needs to be done, especially with that particular dog because it has had the taste of blood now."
Only five breeds - including american pit bulls - are restricted in Australia and there are no plans to ban breeds outright. The Australian Veterinary Association said it is the owner, not the dog, to blame for attacks.
The association points to a controversial US study that showed owners of pit bulls had 10 times more criminal convictions than owners of "low-risk" breeds.
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| Tyra Kuehne |
In her loungeroom, Mrs Kuehne keeps a big photograph of her granddaughter and marks her birthdays and the day of her death with lighted candles. "She was so beautiful," Mrs Kuehne said.
"I'm not a nasty person, I just want dogs who are a menace to be stopped."
(The Daily Telegraph - May 31, 2013)
