Two dogs that escaped their backyard and killed other dogs will be euthanised after their owner was refused a dangerous dogs licence.
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Twice in November, Ruby and Max escaped their Dunlop property.
The Staffordshire bull terriers tore through Brenda Goldstraw and Jodie Sutton's screen door, biting the hand of 20-year-old daughter Isabelle before taking off with and mauling chihuahua Jiminy.
The day before, the dogs had attacked Amanda and Tony Mitchener's dog Saphie in the couple's backyard. A neighbour's 12-year-old daughter discovered the pet's remains.
On reading media reports about the attacks, the dogs' owner handed the pair to authorities, and the dogs were declared dangerous.
But in December, the pair came back to live with their owner after he applied for a licence to keep dangerous dogs.
Jiminy and Saphie's owners, fearing the bull terriers living nearby, challenged that licence, and this month the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal decided in their favour.
They had argued the dogs' enclosure was not secure, not "escape proof", and neither adequate nor appropriate to house the dogs.
The tribunal accepted that while the property was suitable, the enclosure – a roofed, wire mesh structure – it was not secure.
And although the owner had since installed video cameras, the tribunal said they would be little assistance if the dogs were to escape.
It also could not be confident the dogs wouldn't harm another person.
"Whilst acknowledging the terrible outcome [of the attacks] ... the Tribunal accepts that Ruby and Max are cherished pets," senior member Wilhelmena Corby wrote.
"Their actions ... were the actions of dogs.
"The Tribunal attributes no malice or sinister intent to those actions.
"However, the circumstances of those events are such that the Tribunal, after considering the current state of the premises, the evidence and from the perspective of community safety, has come to this sad conclusion."
