Family pets Diesel (inset) and 12-year-old Bingo went missing from a farm in May. Bingo was shot and killed and Diesel has returned home alive but reportedly traumatised.
A Northland family fear their Labrador was used as bait in a dog fight, a claim denied by a neighbour who found the missing pet.
Police say no evidence exists that supports allegations of a dog-fighting ring.
The SPCA was investigating and said it could not comment further.
The family, who did not want to be named, said on May 9 their labrador Diesel and a second pet dog Bingo didn’t come back after being let out to go toilet. Their property spans 60ha.
Their search for the pair included flyers in mailboxes and calling neighbours - including phoning a neighbour who was later videoed admitting he had shot the dogs.
The first time the family spoke to the neighbour he told them he had not seen anything.
The family, dubious, approached him a second time. He maintained he had not heard or seen anything.
When they pressed a third time via text, the neighbour replied saying he would visit them at their home to speak to them.
The neighbour told the family he had shot and killed Bingo and Diesel after seeing them on a forestry block that backed onto his land.
The family filmed the conversation with the neighbour using their phone. In the video seen by the Northern Advocate he can be heard admitting to shooting the dogs.
The neighbour confirmed to the Northern Advocate Bingo had been killed.
He said a miscommunication had been at fault but did not respond when asked for further details.
The neighbour said he heard two dogs bailing up a possum or wild pig on a forestry block bordering his property.
“The dogs had no collars or registration tags and were skinny,” he claimed.
“The dogs also had scratches and wounds which I thought could have come from their fighting pigs or possums when we found them.”
The neighbour had told the family he had fed, watered and housed the dogs from Friday to Sunday.
“We rang around our neighbours and looked for social media posts about missing dogs," he said.
“Nothing was posted and nobody knew anything.”
The family had posted on Facebook about the missing dogs five days after they did not return home.
The neighbour told the Northern Advocate he assumed the dogs had been dumped and had been roaming for some time.
The family received a call from the neighbour’s wife.
She reportedly told them Diesel was alive and with their son a two-hour drive north.
By then the couple had reluctantly told their children the dogs had died.
The family demanded to pick Diesel up. After back and forth text messages, the wife eventually supplied them with an address.
When the family picked up Diesel, they said their happy-go-lucky well-behaved pup appeared traumatised.
The 11-month-old Labrador had been brought as a support dog for their son with autism and ADHD.
But now, the family said, Diesel would freak out at the slightest movements such as when they tried to place a blanket over him for comfort.
They claimed Diesel had been covered in bites around his neck and had scratches on his face leading to their belief he had been used in dog fighting.
The neighbour denied any involvement in an alleged dog-fighting ring.
“There is absolutely no evidence for the claims of dog fighting,” he said.
He explained Diesel had been taken north with the intention of training him to become a working dog given he believed the labrador had been dumped.
“I wasn’t present when this occurred or involved in the dog going further north.”
The neighbour said he was deeply sorry about the misunderstanding and that if the dogs had registration tags he would have returned them instantly.
“Dog control should have been called and I regret that didn’t happen.”
After retrieving Diesel, the family also collected the body of 12-year-old Bingo from the neighbour’s property.
In a video supplied by the family Bingo is wrapped in a sack tied with string.
The neighbour alleged people who lived closer to the family had claimed Bingo and Diesel regularly wandered the district.
The family disagreed, saying they were proud animal lovers and would not let their dogs wander.
They currently house more than 100 rescue animals, including livestock.
The family said Bingo’s death was difficult to put into words.
“It’s been horrific.”
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.