Following the attack, three dogs were seized and euthanised by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
Defence lawyer Nicholas Dutch told Community Magistrate Lesley Jensen that he only received the substantive disclosure materials from the police on April 8.
Dutch said he needed about three or four weeks to go through the disclosure materials with the defendants and obtain instructions for how they wanted to plead.
He also successfully sought continuation of the interim name suppression order for his clients. This was not opposed by police prosecutor Kerry Sykes.
Community Magistrate Jensen remanded the defendants on bail to reappear in the Tauranga Registrar’s Court on May 18.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.