A BALLARAT magistrate has ordered the destruction of an unregistered dog which attacked two dogs within half an hour of each other in Sebastopol last March.
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Army, a Staffordshire terrier cross, left its two victims with serious injuries requiring veterinary treatment totalling more than $1000 combined.
Army’s owner Shaun Horbury, 29, pleaded guilty to four charges in Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday, including having a dog at large and failing to register a dog.
A compensation order for the vet bills was also awarded against him.
City of Ballarat prosecutor Rob Muscat said the first victim was walking in Sebastopol one evening in March when Army ran across the road and started attacking her heeler type dog, Kuta.
Kuta was squealing and tried to fight back but was overpowered.
Army finally released its grip on Kuta after a witness ran over the road and repeatedly kicked the terrier, and another five people had desperately tried to separate them.
Kuta suffered two tears on its front left leg including a five centimetre laceration, and required 10 staples.
Then less than 30 minutes later Army attacked another heeler type dog being walked by its owner, who also had her two-year-old son in a pram.
Army grabbed the heeler, Toby, mauling his front leg.
In the scuffle, the dogs knocked the pram, but Toby’s owner managed to catch it just before it fell.
With the toddler crying, another witness came over and kicked Army three times as hard as he could, causing the terrier to relinquish its grip and run home.
Toby was put under a general anaesthetic by a vet and required a drainage tube.
He lost chunks of his skin, suffered bruising and his shoulder bone and stomach were visible.
Horbury’s defence lawyer Dan Hagan claimed Army had been let out of his yard by “mischief makers”, and urged the court not to order that he be put down.
“The fence was pushed down from outside by persons unknown,” Mr Hagan said.
“The dog (Army) was not capable of escaping on its own.”
But magistrate Richard Pithouse said Army was a “disaster waiting to happen”.
“It’s true character was revealed immediately upon being allowed out to the community,” he said.