{"id":758224,"date":"2026-06-25T00:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758224\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:28:14","slug":"family-of-teen-killed-in-dog-attack-pushes-for-changes-to-ownership-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758224\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of teen killed in dog attack pushes for changes to ownership laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annalyse Blyton was visiting a friend’s house in Singleton, in the NSW Hunter Valley, last September when disaster struck.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old was viciously attacked by a mixed breed dog<\/a> that lived there and died of her injuries four days later.<\/p>\n

Annalyse’s stepmother Naomi Benson said she would never forget the horror of those four days.<\/p>\n

“The initial shock giving way to all the grief and pain. It’s an unimaginable thing to be dealing with,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve lost a beautiful person that had her whole life ahead of her.”\"A<\/p>\n

Naomi Benson founded Pink for Leasy in memory of Annalyse Blyton. (Supplied: Naomi Benson)<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to a Broughton Street home where they found Annalyse suffering critical injuries to her head, neck and body.<\/p>\n

The 10-year-old dog, a mix of boxer, bull arab and Irish wolfhound, was euthanased by police with the consent of the owner.<\/p>\n

The dog’s owners have not been charged, and the matter is now before the coroner with the family still waiting for answers.<\/p>\n

“For us to move forward we need a better understanding of how this could happen,” Ms Benson said.<\/p>\n

“Was that dog registered? Was that dog a product of backyard breeding?”<\/p>\n

Member for Upper Hunter Dave Layzell said the attack had left the Singleton community reeling.<\/p>\n

“Now we need to work through the details of what we can change to strengthen laws. There is clearly more we can do to control aggressive dogs,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Annalyse Blyton was attacked by a mixed-breed dog while visiting a friend’s house. (Supplied: Naomi Benson)<\/p>\n

Calls for dog ownership changes<\/p>\n

There were more than 1,100 recorded dogs attacks in NSW from October to December last year.<\/p>\n

Annalyse’s family has launched a campaign pushing for a raft of changes to dog ownership laws.<\/p>\n

“This is something that could have been prevented. She could have finished her HSC and gone on to live her life,” Ms Benson said.<\/p>\n

“Our motivation definitely comes from that feeling of ‘what more could have been done?'”<\/p>\n

The Pink for Leasy campaign is calling for licensing for dog owners, particularly those for people planning to own aggressive breeds, as well as a crackdown on backyard breeders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Naomi Benson says the family has endured unimaginable grief. (Supplied: Naomi Benson)<\/p>\n

Ms Benson said licence applicants should also be given access to education on aggressive breeds and dog behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A backyard breeding taskforce to investigate illegal and unethical breeders was also on the wishlist as well as better funding of local councils for enforcement.<\/p>\n

“If people accessed information before purchasing a dog I think that it would make a massive difference,” Ms Benson said.<\/p>\n

“It would make sure that people who are purchasing dogs are really going to commit to what they need to for certain breeds.”\"Dave<\/p>\n

Dave Layzell met with Pink for Leasy advocates last week. (Supplied: Dave Layzell)<\/p>\n

Review underway<\/p>\n

A review of the state’s Companion Animals Act has been underway since February 2025, prompted by inquests into three fatal dog attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The inquests handed down multiple recommendations, including licences for certain breeds and stricter fines for unregistered dogs.<\/p>\n

It also said enforcement of the laws that did exist was lacking from some local councils.<\/p>\n

\"'Beware<\/p>\n

A review of the NSW Companion Animals Act is expected to be completed this year. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n

“When it comes to local government ranger services, the recommendations from the coroner reports indicate that better training could happen, better funding and resourcing,” Ms Benson said.<\/p>\n

She said more community awareness was also needed on when to report incidents or concerns about a dog to council.<\/p>\n

At the time of Annalyse’s death, the Office of Local Government told the ABC<\/a> the tragedy highlighted “the importance of reviewing the NSW government’s approach to the management of dogs”, but nine months later, the review is still not complete.<\/p>\n

Dog attack hotspots revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

As a close-knit regional NSW community reels in the wake of a fatal dog attack, the state government is finalising the first review of its dog ownership laws in more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig said the government was “carefully considering a range of issues, including community safety, responsible pet ownership, education, enforcement and the effectiveness of the current regulatory framework”.<\/p>\n

“Annalyse’s death was a terrible tragedy, and my thoughts remain with her family,” Mr Hoenig said.<\/p>\n

“Cases such as this reinforce the importance of getting the balance right \u2026 to ensure any reforms are practical, evidence-based and effective.”<\/p>\n

The review is expected to be finalised later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Annalyse Blyton was visiting a friend’s house in Singleton, in the NSW Hunter Valley, last September when disaster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[362506,83244,362507,180806,43,44,362505,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-758224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-companion-animals-act","tag-dog-attack","tag-dog-ownership-laws","tag-fatal-dog-attack","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-singleton-dog-attack","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}