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John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Eion Allison asked authorities for costs after being taken to court for shooting his neighbor’s aggressive dog.
A Dunedin man who shot his neighbor’s dog did nothing wrong, but shouldn’t receive tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for being taken to court, a judge ruled.
Eion Allison had warned her neighbors to contain her dog Flex, a Labrador hunting cross, after she saw him chasing sheep on their property.
But a week later, on August 30, 2017, Allison again saw the dog running through a flock of sheep.
He saw the dog biting the back of a sheep’s legs, removing the wool from the animal.
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Allison shot Flex, but only wounded him and missed with her second shot.
The neighbor’s grandfather appeared and walked with Allison to tie up the dog. Grandpa heard two shots while on his way to make a phone call and discovered that Allison had shot Flex again at close range, killing him.
Ben Curran / Stuff
A legal battle ensued after a neighbor shot a dog that had attacked sheep. (File photo)
Allison was charged with mistreatment of an animal and illegal possession of a firearm without a legal, proper and sufficient purpose. He opted for a trial in District Court.
The prosecution argued that Allison mistreated Flex because the dog had not been attacking the sheep, and said that Flex would have required extensive surgery or amputation from the first shot, which only wounded him.
But the defense argued that under the Dog Control Act, Allison was authorized to destroy Flex to prevent the sheep from being attacked. The court also heard that removing wool from a sheep required considerable force and would have been traumatic for the animal. Police discovered that wool was missing from a sheep after the incident.
The judge later dismissed all three charges.
Allison requested compensation costs of $ 50,000 from the police and witness expenses of $ 1874.40.
The judge ordered the Justice Department, rather than the police, to pay Allison a total of $ 49,139.
The attorney general then appealed to Superior Court, but Judge Rob Osborne agreed with the sentencing judge’s decision that no crime had been committed and it was appropriate for the ministry to pay for Allison’s costs.
However, Judge Osborne disagreed with the amount, ruling that Allison should receive only $ 2,213 from the ministry.
