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Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Locals fear dogs accused of maulings

By Victoria White and Kim Fulton
Hawkes Bay Today·
1 Aug, 2016 12:20 AM3 mins to read

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Locals fear a pair of dogs roaming Bluff Hill are responsible for attacks on family pets. Photo / Duncan Brown

Locals fear a pair of dogs roaming Bluff Hill are responsible for attacks on family pets. Photo / Duncan Brown

A pair of dogs thought to have mauled two sheep at Bluff Hill last weekend have caused chaos in the area in the past, according to residents.

Bluff Hill residents Robin Heath and Murray Tonks found their two pet sheep, Arapawa and Charlotte, fatally attacked last weekend.

Witnesses saw a pair of dogs that morning, which were known for roaming the area and hurting animals.

Local resident Kevin Eddy described being cornered by two dogs when he came across them on his property in April.

He'd seen pound staff going up and down the road then came across two big, aggressive dogs on his lawn.

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They came towards him in a "not very pleasant manner", he said.

"I never had them cornered. They basically had me cornered, if anything."

Mr Eddy said he froze for a while before managing to sneak back around to the front of the house and call out to the pound staff.

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They took more than 20 minutes to retrieve the dogs, helped by somebody he presumed was the owner of the dogs.

"They weren't going to come back to their master just by a whistle or anything like that."

Mr Eddy said two neighbours came over that night looking for their cats.

He understood one neighbour got their pet back but the other, Richard Taylor, hadn't seen his cat since.

Mr Taylor said his 14-year-old chocolate Burmese cat, named Boi Boi, had been missing since the afternoon the dogs got loose.

"I can't prove my cat was killed by them but the day they created chaos in Hornsey Rd was the day he went missing."

Mr Taylor said pets had been killed, chased and traumatised because the dogs were not in a secure enclosure.

"It's wanton destruction of people's pets," he said.

"Why should people's pets be at risk without being advised that they're at risk?"

Mr Taylor thought council knew about the dogs but had taken no action to warn residents.

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"If I had been warned I would have kept my cat inside," he said.

Napier City Council manager corporate communications Fiona Fraser said the only incident Animal Control had been alerted to so far concerning the dogs harming animals was the alleged attack on the two sheep.

There had also been one complaint lodged with Animal Control about the dogs barking, she said.

"Until last week, the only concerns we had were around barking."

Ms Fraser said Animal Control had no jurisdiction over how residents secured their properties. The onus was on the dog owner to secure their animals.

She said Animal Control visited the dog owners last Saturday morning to speak with them about their animals.

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"A fine of $300 was issued for breaching the dogs' menacing classification, and the owners agreed to comply with regulations by securing their dogs on the property and muzzling them when required. The dog owners understand that if their dogs are found roaming off the property again they will be seized."

Earlier this week, a resident, identified as Greg, told Hawke's Bay Today his cat had been attacked by the same dogs in February, after which it spent six weeks in a vet clinic and lost a leg.

Barry Richardson's two cats had not been harmed by the dogs but had been chased, and the dogs had tried to get into his house.

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