Bash the mask-averse, cop-biting, pitbull to be put down after attack

A dog that bit two Hamilton police officers in separate incidents is to be put down. Photo / 123rf

Bash, the mask-averse Pitbull cross, will be put down after biting two police officers in separate incidents, leaving them with puncture wounds to their arms.

Hamilton police officers were called to the home of its owner, Jeanette Henry, for the first time about 11pm on September 16 last year due to a family harm incident.

While Bash was initially “docile and friendly”, he shortly after began to “growl and show teeth”.

Officers asked for Bash to put inside to allow St John staff to attend to a family member, but he managed to escape as people continued to use the front door.

Bash ran for the female officer, who managed to get away, however he then turned his attention to a male constable.

He jumped up and bit him on the forearm for a few seconds before letting go and running down the driveway.

Two different officers returned to the house two months later. Bash, who was inside, again ran for and bit the female officer on the forearm before letting go.

Both officers suffered deep puncture wounds and required medical treatment.

Henry appeared for sentence in the Hamilton District Court today on reduced charges of owning a dog that attacked a person, which has a maximum penalty of a $3000 fine.

Crown prosecutor Bolivia Newton pushed for Bash to be put down and Henry, who was upset throughout the court proceedings, be given the near maximum penalty as the dog had been classified as menacing just five months before the first attack.

“Both of these were entirely preventable,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of her client, Henry’s counsel, Jessica Tarrant, said the incident was “more or less provoked by police”.

“They had pepper-sprayed the dog a few weeks earlier and come back to the address.

“Obviously dogs, they see people that have done them wrong in the past, noticed their uniform. The police have attended the address on those occasions knowing the dog was there.

“[Henry] accepts it had to have a muzzle on given its classification it was however her late partner’s dog and it’s very special to her ... it’s part of her family and given support to her for a long time, and that’s why she’s opposed to destruction.”

She added that Bash did not like people who wore masks.

“Dogs on the odd occasion don’t like people wearing masks. It was at the time of Covid and everyone was wearing masks,” she said.

Judge Simon Menzies asked how he was to consider that submission, given masks were mandatory “or regarded as an appropriate public health measure”, as a reason not to order the destruction.

“I can’t take it any further, those are her instructions, that the dog doesn’t like masks,” Tarrant replied.

Given Bash’s classification under the Dog Control Act, Henry wasn’t to allow him to be free in any public place or private way - unless in a cage - without a muzzle.

Judge Menzies said the attacks were serious and despite Bash being given the menacing order, Henry failed to meet the requirements on both occasions.

“The consequences therefore being that the dog is out of control and has actually attacked the officers on each occasion ... to the point where they required hospital treatment.”

For Bash to avoid death, his owner would have to prove that the chances of another attack would be “remote” or an “exceptional circumstance”.

Given the dog had been pepper-sprayed prior to the attacks, also didn’t help the situation, he said, neither did a dog who didn’t like masks in a current global pandemic.

“In the current circumstances where we have been, and are, in the throws of a pandemic and masks are commonplace and in some circumstances have been mandated, to suggest that people wearing masks in exceptional circumstances are not to be repeated are a nonsense.”

Judge Menzies ordered Bash to be put down and Henry to pay a total fine of $1500.