Josephine injured protecting Milo2 min read
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When Councillor Josephine Bartley saw the chain around the neck of the aggressive dog charging toward her beloved pet, she assumed it would tighten before the animal reached them – but it didn’t.
Josephine sustained a bite to her hand after trying to pry the dog – believed to be a staffie cross – off her elderly shih tzu, Milo, during a walk home in Glen Innes in March. Her 65-year-old aunt was walking slightly ahead with Milo when the attack occurred.
They had just passed a driveway when Josephine saw the dog dragging a chain and running toward them. It bypassed her, shoved her aunt against a parked car, and grabbed Milo.
“It didn’t want me. He was aiming straight for Milo,” she says. Josephine intervened, wrestling with the dog to release Milo. She suffered a hand bite and a knee injury, while Milo was thrown to the ground by the larger animal.
The dog’s owner arrived moments later, pulled the dog away, placed it in a car, and drove off without providing any details. “He didn’t even have the decency to see if we were okay,” Josephine says. She says that when she saw Milo lying on the ground, not moving, she thought he was dead. “Then I saw his little body move, and he was able to roll over and get himself up. He is such a tough little dog.”
Milo was taken to the vet and Josephine to A&E. Although Milo did not suffer puncture wounds, he is badly bruised, on pain medication, and struggling to walk after being grabbed in the genital area. Josephine did not require stitches, but received a tetanus injection and antibiotics.
A long time advocate for stronger dog control laws, Josephine says the attack underscores the urgent need to reform New Zealand’s 30-year-old Dog Control Act. She wrote to Local Government Minister Simon Watts the same night, calling the situation “unacceptable” and warning that roaming and uncontrolled dogs pose a growing danger in Auckland. In a social media post after the attack, mayor Wayne Brown, said the government has decided to review the act.
Animal Management is investigating.
