ACC to replace ear torn off by police dog

A man whose left ear was bitten off by a police dog is to have it reconstructed, at the expense of ACC.

The surgery, a rare and complex series of operations, will probably cost about $20,000.

Casey Voges, 29, conceded in a Sunday newspaper that it was probably unfair that the taxpayer would be paying for his surgery but he believed the dog attack was an assault and warranted compensation.

Voges is in Auckland Central Remand Prison facing 10 charges of burglary, one of theft and another of unlawful access to an enclosed yard.

The newspaper said Voges had spent 12 years of his life behind bars in Australia and New Zealand for burglary and drug use but now he says he wants to turn around his life.

And to help he needs the new ear -- his was bitten off by a police dog during an arrest in February 2005. MORE>>

Monday's article Row over jail inmate's cosmetic surgery

....National Party ACC spokeswoman Pansy Wong said taxpayers would find it very difficult to digest that their hard-earned money was going to cosmetically enhance a criminal's looks.

"He claims he is a victim and that victims have a right to be compensated, but I am certain society's true victims will find this claim repugnant......

What do you think?

My opinion is that if a police dog bites someone, he's not well trained. Police dogs should be elite dogs, but apparently they aren't. There's an article in my blog that has a complaint against the police dog handlers. I never did learn the outcome of that.

Yes, the guy was a burglar (I was burglarized more times in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, so I know how it feels), but I also can see the other side, and that is... the guy had a dog attack him ! When a dog attacks a person, that dog is usually put down.

Now the police are going to say that they should have tasers... but as we know from the Canadian experience, it does more harm because cops then to use them without looking for another means first. But that's another issue...