The poor kid. How terrifying and horrible. I hope this prompts (again) some reflection on NZ’s dog laws and general attitudes towards dog ownership.

I once house-sat for a lady who had a black lab and that dog was very strong and broke the metal clip on a lead once when she saw a cat while tied up at a picnic table; I can’t imagine any family requiring a stronger, scarier pet than that.

A few weekends ago, I walked past a local high school pushing my baby in a pram. There was a man inside taking the chance to run his dog on the school field. He didn’t give two shits when his dog started behaving aggressively, barking at the pram and following us down the fence line.

Sheesh, people. If you have dogs, train them and keep them under control, and especially supervise them around young kids.