Woman waits for reparation

A WHANGANUI woman is still waiting for reparation after her pet pig was savaged by a neighbour's pit bull dog and had to be put down.

Princess Jury, who lives on a small lifestyle block in Aramoho, said she found her 6-year-old pig being eaten alive by the dog on Christmas Day.

"The dog was literally eating my pig alive from the back end. There were chunks of her flesh across the paddock. Who wants to find their pet like that?" Ms Jury told the Chronicle.

She and her grandson chased the dog off and it ran towards its home in Arran Pl, just around the corner from the Jury home.

"My grandson ran to get a neighbour to help but the dog turned on him and he had to run into the neighbour's home to safety."

Ms Jury said they identified the dog and tracked it to its property. "The dog ranger got the owner to my property and the owner agreed he would pay the vet's bills as well as reparation for the pig."

She said the dog was impounded "for a couple of days" before it was back with its owner.

Ms Jury said the veterinary bill to have the pig put down was about $180 while the pig was worth about $250. But she said while the dog's owner agreed to pay her, she's received nothing.

She said she had dropped the bill off at the dog owner's property on three separate occasions but nothing has happened.

She said the pit bull was back on her property about a fortnight ago.

"My two little dogs were going ballistic one night so I went out to see what the problem was. Here was this same pit bull on my property.

"I spoke to the dog control officer and he said he was going to make an effort to contact the pit bull's owner to ask him about what he was doing about paying the reparation and vet's fees.

"The point is this dog came on to my property, attacked our pig and started eating it alive. No way should that dog have been allowed to go back to its home. It should have been put down.

"Why do our animals have to be at risk?"

Ms Jury said there had been other instances of dogs killing cats in the neighbourhood as well.

"What right have they got to take these animals back home when they've been killing other animals? And how long before these dogs turn on a person?"

Bryan Nicholson, Whanganui District Council's regulatory and customer services manager, said the initial incident did not warrant prosecuting the owner, but he said council staff were going through the process of classifying the dog as "dangerous" and the dog's owner will receive an infringement notice for $200.

"The dangerous classification will impose a number of restrictions on the owner at their home address and when out in public with his dog. If these conditions aren't complied with, council will uplift the dog and potentially prosecute or fine the owner," Mr Nicholson said.

"The incident where the pit bull harassed Ms Jury's small dogs wouldn't change the plan we have in place for dealing with this incident, which is to classify the pit bull as dangerous."

He said while council has no powers to enforce payments, it encouraged owners to take responsibility for any costs incurred.