Calls to Ban Staffordshire Bull Terriers in New Zealand Reignited Following Attack on Japanese Girl

Bianca (C), a chihuahua, arrives in a baby carriage with other pet dogs to compete in the second annual Doggie Gras Parade and Fat Cat Tuesday Celebration at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, California March 4, 2014. Bianca won the contest and was named queen of the doggie Gras parade. Reuters/stringer

Victims of dog attacks in New Zealand have reignited calls to include Staffordshire-bull-terrier-cross in the list of banned dogs in the country, following Monday's horrific attack on a Japanese girl by four dogs of the said breed.

On Monday, 7-year-old Japanese girl Sakurako Uehara was attacked and mauled by four Staffordshire-bull-terrier-cross dogs while playing in the yard of a Murupara home owned by family friends.

She is confined in the intensive care unit at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, critical but otherwise stable.

Carolina Anderson, herself a victim of dog mauling when she was also 7-years old, called for the permanent ban of the Staffordshire-bull-terrier-cross dogs in New Zealand.

"I'm really upset that it's happened again 11 years later. It should have been dealt with a lot earlier. These attacks have happened, even after me, and nothing has really been done," she told New Zealand Herald. "I'm a bit against those breeds. I think they should be banned completely."

So far, only five types of breeds are banned in New Zealand, including the American pitbull terrier, dogo Argentino, Brazilian fila, Japanese tosa and the perro de presa canario.

"People say it's the owners' fault, that it's the way they treat their dogs, but it's not, necessarily. I think it's really more just the dog itself. When [big, aggressive dogs] attack it's really bad because the injuries they inflict are way different than if it was a tiny Chihuahua or something. They're so strong, you can't do anything," Ms Anderson said.

Bianca (C), a chihuahua, arrives in a baby carriage with other pet dogs to compete in the second annual Doggie Gras Parade and Fat Cat Tuesday Celebration at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, California March 4, 2014. Bianca won the contest and was named queen of the doggie Gras parade. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Mauled in 2003 and lived to tell the story, Ms Anderson said her father struggled to wrestle the lone American Staffordshire terrier that mauled her.

"I can't even imagine four dogs [like those that attacked Sakurako]. I don't know how she didn't die."

Young Sakurako and her family were currently working on gaining permanent residency in New Zealand. They had bought property in Murupara town because they fell in love with "what they saw."

Local police are still investigating what prompted the dogs to attack, as well as if charges should be filed against the owners. Initial enquiries had established the dogs were registered and micro-chipped family pets.

A vet has since put down all four dogs.