Woman tries to forget the screams of a dog after she found it hanged in park

A cross breed dog of staffordshire bull terrier and american pitbull terrier believed to be similar to the one that was hanged in Churchill Park. Photo / Getty

A Tauranga woman is trying to erase the sound of a dog screaming from her mind after she saw it hanging from a tree in Churchill Park on Tuesday.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she heard unfamiliar noises while walking through the park around midday but she was not prepared for the "horrendous" sight she found.

"I went close and I could see down through the trees the dog hanging and struggling to get away."

She said the dog, which she believed to be a brindle staffy cross, was in distress and screaming on the corner of a track from Judea Rd.

The dog wore a collar and she believed the connected chain was deliberately wrapped around a tree branch that was not possible for the dog to jump over.

"I wanted to save it but by the time I got around there, if I had taken it down, it was probably brain dead by then."

She was filled with anger when a man came from behind and ran off after taking the dog down.

"I knew he had done it. It is just scary to know the person who did it is out there.

"If someone knows anything about it go to the police. It's animal cruelty and it is not okay to do that."

A police spokeswoman confirmed an injured dog in the Judea area had been reported to police at 12.10pm on Tuesday.

She said police attended immediately but could not find the dog or any person of interest. Anyone with information is asked to call the police.

At the end of February this year SPCA New Zealand revealed the most shocking national cases of animal abuse - a Tauranga case being one of them.

Tauranga man Louis Delves was jailed in January for neglecting his two dogs, Tank and Sass in June 2017.

The dogs were found in extremely thin body condition with Tank being chained to a car port post and exposed to torrential rain and Sass was curled up, shivering inside a kennel.

Both dogs were assessed with a body condition score of just one out of nine, and both were infected with intestinal worms and fleas.

The dogs have now been adopted to new families while Delves pleaded guilty to four charges under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 relating to failing to ensure the physical, health and behavioural needs of the dogs.

At the time SPCA chief executive Andrea Midgen said 2018 was a particularly cruel year for some of New Zealand's animals with SPCA Inspectors were seeing many cases of intense neglect and extreme violence towards animals.