A reluctant hero probably saved the life of a young Taranaki boy being savaged by a pitbull-cross dog.
The attack happened while Rick Bell, aged 11, of Stratford, was out cycling.
The dog took to Rick when he was just 20m from his grandmother's home, where he was staying.
"He jumped straight over the fence," Rick said from his hospital bed in New Plymouth yesterday.
"I heard barking and I looked back and saw him. I pedalled faster but he grabbed my leg and pulled me off my bike."
The dog shook Rick, ripping large pieces of flesh out of his leg and the arm he was using to protect his face and throat.
A passing motorist, who wants to remain anonymous, realised the boy's life was in danger and ran his vehicle into the dog.
"The dog let go and ran into the middle of the road," said Rick.
Another motorist herded the dog into its own driveway.
After the attack, which occurred on Saturday, an ambulance took Rick to Taranaki Base Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery early the next day.
Police said they might charge the dog's owner.
Last month, an 8-year-old Rotorua boy needed more than 200 stitches after he was mauled by two dogs.
On Saturday, a pitbull-cross was seized in Rotorua after it charged and bit a 12-year-old cyclist, while three dogs were destroyed after they were found attacking horses in another part of the city.
Rick's mother, Kerry Bell, is angry the dog was not put down immediately. "On Sunday morning, Rick's uncle went to make sure it was dead and saw it still running around in the paddock. It could have jumped the fence and got another kid."
Stratford District Council spokesman Stuart Perry said police notified an animal control officer on Saturday night about the attack.
The Staffordshire-pitbull-cross was destroyed on Sunday.
The dog was not recorded as dangerous, but its owner was facing fines because it rushed at someone, Mr Perry said.
The owner had also been fined for not having his other dog under control. Neither dog was registered.
Rick, who has deep puncture wounds in his left arm, lower right arm and right leg, will need skin grafts. "I can't move my left arm," he said. "That's the one the dog held on to the longest."
- NZPA
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