A routine chat with a dog owner ended with a Whangarei animal control officer allegedly assaulted and his vehicle's tyres slashed.
It's an indication of how the workers faced abuse on the job from angry members of the public, their boss says, who has the workers wearing stab-proof vests while out and about.
Stab-proof vests to protect staff from angry people they deal with are "the best money I've ever spent", Environmental Northland manager Keith Thompson, the man enforcing the rules around dogs and noise in Whangarei and Kaipara, said.
One of his enforcement officers was shoved and threatened on Tuesday, before the alleged attacker slashed the tyre of the officer's vehicle with a sharp object.
Facing irate members of the public is all in a day's work for the staff, and this week the assaulted worker was on a routine job to "have a chat" about a problematic dog on Pataua South's Mahanga Rd, Mr Thompson said.