A Dunedin man says he had to fatally stab his flatmate’s dog after he was mauled while intervening in "dog politics".
The man, who declined to be named, said he had taken his dogs for a walk, along with his flatmate’s dog last Thursday.
When they returned home to Moreau St about 1pm, he unleashed them and told them to go outside to play.
However, a fight broke out.
"I got in the middle to break up the fight, and one of the dogs latched on to my arm and started mauling me," the man said.
Chaos ensued as he had to stop one of his dogs from attacking his flatmate’s dog, which was on his arm, while he moved the third dog into a separate room.
For the next 10 minutes he was dragged around the house by the dog latched on to his arm.
Although he was screaming for help, it was the middle of the day and his neighbours were at work.
That was when he realised he would have to kill the dog in order to get it off his arm.
He took out his pocket knife and stabbed the dog through the throat, the jugular and the windpipe.
"Once I ... cut it open, it clamped down and shook twice as hard — it wouldn’t let go, so I had to reach into its throat and pull its tongue down to open up its jaw to get my arm out," the man said.
He then had to hold the dog down until it had lost enough blood that it could not come at him — or anybody else — any longer.
Only then could he run out of the house and into the street.
He waved down passing cars, who called for an ambulance.
Since the incident he had had two surgeries on his arm and would likely need a third.
The attack could have been fatal and both he and his flatmate had been left traumatised by the incident.
"I guarantee you, 99% of the population would have died in that house," the man said.
"It was literally just dog politics ... Dogs have their own ... hierarchy, and it’s unfortunate that my arm got in the middle of it."
He had been left frustrated by a police spokesman describing the episode as a disorder incident involving a dog which left one person with minor injuries.
