Dog attacks young neighbour

Danial Beinke helped a young girl who was mauled by a neighbour’s dog in Goodna.

Rob Williams

AN IPSWICH girl was taken to hospital after being attacked by a neighbour’s dog yesterday, a short distance from where another child was bitten by a police dog last week.

The 10-year-old girl was in the backyard of her Cramp Street home, at Goodna, when the dog reportedly dug its way under a fence and bit her leg, leaving deep puncture wounds.

She ran screaming and bloodied to a neighbour’s house about 7.15am, while the dog, which police said was a bull mastiff and Alsatian cross, remained in the backyard.

Neighbour Danial Beinke, who first helped the girl and called emergency services, said the dog was “large” and “vicious”.

The attack was only about 200m from where eight-year-old David Kay was bitten by a police dog in his Lang Court home last Thursday.

It follows yet another dog attack on Saturday, where a Bellbird Park seven-year-old boy was attacked by two dogs at his front door.

Mr Beinke said the girl and her two younger siblings at the house were extremely traumatised as they waited for the police and ambulance to arrive.

“The dog had bitten her on the leg quite viciously – it was quite a deep puncture. She was hanging a shirt on the line when the dog dug under the fence,” he said.

He said the girl’s mother was at work at the time of the incident.

A spokesman for the Queensland Ambulance Service said the girl was taken to Ipswich hospital in a stable condition with puncture wounds to her calf.

Police said they attended the incident, but because it was a dog attack on private property it would be up to the Ipswich City Council to investigate the attack.

Council’s Health and Regulation Committee chairman Andrew Antoniolli said the dog was surrendered from a Bellevue Road property yesterday.

It is currently at the Ipswich City Council Animal Management facility pending further investigations. The owner of the dog may be liable for prosecution.