Dog owner fails to turn up for appeal

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.

When his appeal was first called in the High Court in February, Justice Simon Moore questioned what order was Puru seeking from the court when his prized pooch had already been put down.

The matter was adjourned to last week when Justice Anne Hinton struck out the appeal after Puru failed to turn up in court.