An animal training expert says we need more tools to help educate dog owners on training and control.
It comes after dog owner Henare Carroll was sentenced to five months' home detention after his pit bull terrier ripped the face of a seven-year-old boy last year. The child needed 100 stitches and had a metal plate inserted in his fractured nose.
PET First Aid and Training founder Joanna Clough says the crackdown is good, but we need to focus on prevention.
"Auckland Council and what they're doing is really good, but we need to have more around the responsible dog owners. If you do the responsible dog owners' course that is online, it has got nothing about canine behaviour in it."
Ms Clough says Carroll's home detention is a tougher sentence than owners used to get.
"If you look at the situation two years ago with Kirsty O'Sullivan, who was bitten on Pt Chev Beach, that owner took off with the dog and there was never any comeback on that owner."
Newshub.
