An 8-year-old boy will undergo surgery today for "severe" facial lacerations after being attacked by a pit bull terrier in Dunedin yesterday.
Sergeant Tania Baron said the boy was patting the 2-year-old male dog, owned by his mother's partner, at his Calton Hill home when, for unknown reasons, it attacked him about 5pm.
He was bitten on the lower face, suffered "severe lacerations" and was transported to Dunedin Hospital.
The child and the dog were "normally best of mates" and went everywhere together, Sgt Baron said.
She described the child as "amazing" and "resilient".
"The guys were quite surprised at how he was handling it. He kept asking if he could go to school tomorrow."
Dunedin City Council animal control team leader Ros MacGill said animal control was called by police to help with the "agitated" dog, which was shut in a room when they arrived.
Sgt Baron said the dog was so large the animal control officer required help from police to apprehend it.
After being signed over by its owners, it was put down.
It was unclear if the dog was registered.
