BEWARE THE DOG!

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 6

BEWARE THE DOG!

A MISTAKE IN THE DARK.

A question of identity was involved in a case at Onehunga this morning, , when C. A. Hines was charged with keeping a savage dog. not under proper control. Witness related that on the evening of June 10, at a quarter-past seven, two dogs were fighting in a drain, but one of them then turned its attention to the three pedestrians and snarled at them. Tt was a big Airedale dog. anl it only desisted from harking at them when a neighbour called out "Lay down, Roger." It evidently understood these instructions, although not given in the best English, and this prevented it from going to the extreme length of biting them, as it did on a previous occasion to the husband of one of the witnesses, when he was told it belonged to defendant. Counsel submitted there was no case to answer, for nobody could identify a dog at 7.15 p.m. on about the shortest day of the year, even with the assistance of the "twilight" which they claimed to enable them to describe its markings. His client's dog was a wellbehaved one. and was tied up at present. Mr. McKean. S.M., said he could not make an order for the destruction of the dog on the evidence produced, as the identity had not been established, and dismissed the case.