An appeal by a dog owner against the destruction of his dog has been struck out after he failed to turn up in court.
Jerran Puru was fined $300 by the Whangarei District Court in November last year after he admitted one charge of being the owner of a dog that attacked a person and another of failing to register a dog.
The court ordered his tan and white pitbull terrier Paco be put down after it bit a postie who went to deliver a parcel at Puru's home in Hikurangi on March 23 last year.
The dog was unrestrained when it attacked the postie who required an x-ray and a tetanus shot.
Puru, 29, filed an appeal in the High Court at Whangarei shortly after an order for the destruction of the dog was made in the District Court.