Dog attacks Qld: Alarming SEQ figures cap spate of horror incidents

The spate of recent dog attacks has highlighted the growing concern across SEQ - and the numbers back it up.

South East Queensland councils have reported more than 3600 dog attacks in the last two years, with hundreds of those involving people being bitten.

The alarming figures can be revealed following a spate of disturbing attacks, including the mauling of two small children last week and the death of a Energex meter reader in December.

There were more than 1700 attacks in Brisbane City Council from the beginning of 2022 to this week, while Gold Coast City Council said it receives between 50 and 60 dog attack reports each month.

But the two major local governments include incidents of dogs attacking other dogs and animals into the data, as well as dogs targeting humans.

In Logan, which has reported the most notorious attacks in recent months, including the death of Energex employee Kane Minion and the vicious attack of six-year-old Laquarna Chapman Palmer, there were 218 reports of people being bitten by dogs in the 2021/22 financial year.

This compares to 208 in the previous financial year, while 162 have already been reported in this financial year to April 13.

Veronica Wingrove with her daughter Lizzie, 12, at Redcliffe Jetty four years after Lizzie was attacked by a dog in her own street. Lizzie is still undergoing plastic surgery to minimise the scarring. Picture: Brad Fleet

Redland Council said there were 164 dog attacks reported in its local government area in the 12 months to this week, which is 10 more than the previous year.

In Moreton Bay, where Mayor Peter Flannery has been particularly vocal lobbying the state government to enact stronger animal management laws, there were 722 dog attacks in the 2022 calendar year which included 236 instances of attacks on people.

This compares to 664 total attacks in 2021, which included 227 dog bites of people, while Ipswich reported nearly 500 attacks in the 2022 calendar year and 155 so far this year.

Veronica Wingrove, whose daughter Lizzie was seven when she was viciously attacked in Moreton Bay in 2016, welcomed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s call to urgently reconvene a task force reviewing dangerous dog laws.

Her daughter was left with a hole on the side of her face and still wears the scars of the brutal attack.

Kane Minion, 42, who was killed after being attacked by dogs while working as a meter reader at a property at Greenbank.

Laquarna Chapman Palmer. Source: Supplied.

“A dog can appear to be a good dog and then can turn unexpectedly,” Ms Wingrove told The Courier-Mail.

“No child or even an adult or a pet should ever have to pay for it.

“It’s wrong people try to push some idea that it’s not the dog’s fault.

“It’s the fault of so many on so many different levels — it’s the dog, it’s the owner, it’s the dog’s environment.

“They can be unpredictable.”

A Redland council spokeswoman said the majority of attacks in the local government area were caused by owners not having their pets on leads or not suitably containing them to their homes.

“Council urges all residents and visitors to take responsibility for their dogs by ensuring they are kept within their enclosed yards with appropriate fencing and that dogs are kept on a lead at all times when in public, except in a designated off-leash area,” they said.

Originally published as Dog attacks Qld: Alarming SEQ figures cap spate of horror incidents