SAY UNCLE: Leo Psylliakos with Uncle who must be always be chained and wear a muzzle after council issued a proposed declaration of a dangerous dog. Photo: STEVE GOSCH
UNCLE and Ziggy have been given a stay of execution until January 21, the deadline for their owners to present a case as to why the dogs should not be classified as dangerous.
The dogs were involved in an attack in December that left a woman with puncture marks in her thigh.
The dogs escaped Lynda and Leo Psylliakos’s yard, attacked a German shepherd that was being walked on a lead by the woman and Uncle the ridgeback cross boxer then bit her leg after the woman intervened to protect her dog.
Ziggy the kelpie barked during the attack but did not bite.
The owners were issued with a letter from council this week that gives them until January 21 to make a case for the dogs otherwise they will have to be surrendered to council to be killed or they will have to live in a cage.
Uncle is still at the Psylliakos’s house but Ziggy has been staying on a farm where he is receiving dog training.
Mr Psylliakos said the couple was seeking legal advice but he does not hold out much hope for the 11-year-old boxer.
“It’s unavoidable I think but our hope is that they give him a 12 month probation and after that the classification can be wiped,” he said.
“He’s 11 he hasn’t got many years left.”
As for Ziggy, Mr Psylliakos believes they can argue for a reduced classification to a nuisance dog.
“We’d just have to make sure he didn’t get out,” he said.
The couple has been campaigning hard for public support to save the dogs and have about 150 signatures on a petition they started on December 17.