Hammer attack leaves police dog stitched up

Derek Orchard and Ben recover at home after the weekend attack. Picture / Alan Gibson

Police dog handler Derek Orchard's voice shook as he described a vicious attack on his dog Ben.

"He was bleeding profusely," Constable Orchard said. "He'd stopped barking."

The two were last night recovering at home in Tauranga after an alleged attack by a man with a claw hammer in Matamata about 5am.

Mr Orchard escaped with minor injuries to the right temple, but Ben took the full force of a blow to the snout and required emergency treatment.

The 4-year-old German Shepherd was given sedatives and a row of stitches for the gaping wound, and his snout remained swollen last night.

He is expected to be off work for at least a week.

The attack happened as Mr Orchard and Ben were trying to catch a man who had allegedly failed to stop for police when spotted in an unregistered, unwarranted car at the top of the Kaimai Ranges.

Mr Orchard and another police vehicle chased the car, but the pursuit was abandoned because the suspect's driving was considered too dangerous.

Mr Orchard spotted the car again in Matamata and pursued it around several streets, until the man jumped out and fled among houses and over a 2m fence.

Ben caught up with the suspect on the other side of the fence, where he was attacked and began yelping.

"I shone my torch in the direction of the noise where I could see Ben and the offender engaged in mortal combat," Mr Orchard said.

Running to his dog's aid, the officer was swiped with the hammer in the head, while Ben's professional instinct kicked in. "He just went straight back to apprehend the offender," Mr Orchard said.

The dog then went quiet and a vet was called.

A 34-year-old Palmerston North man wanted on a number of arrest warrants will appear in the Hamilton District Court today.

He faces multiple charges, including assaulting a police officer and injuring a police dog.

Western Bay of Plenty area commander Inspector Murray Lewis said such incidents were rare.

"Most people, when confronted with a police dog, acquiesce immediately," he said.

About two people a year are charged with injuring a police dog.

The last fatal attacks on police dogs from Tauranga were in 1994, when two dogs were killed in two months.

The first was stabbed to death when the handler was attending a domestic incident in Papamoa, and the second was shot during an armed offenders squad callout at Matata.

Former police officer John Roff, whose dog Spike was killed in the Papamoa incident, said dog handlers and their dogs shared a special relationship and losing one was devastating.

"They're part of your family. It's just like losing a family member."

Mr Roth said the instinct for handlers to protect their dog, and vice versa, was very strong.

"You're a team. You can't work without the other."

Meanwhile, Bay of Plenty police are searching for groups responsible for two separate street attacks in Tauranga and Rotorua over the weekend.

Rotorua police are looking for two men after a 41-year-old man suffered life-threatening head injuries in an attack on Miller St on Saturday night.

Police said the victim was repeatedly punched, kicked and hit with a bat while out walking at 9.20pm.

And officers in Tauranga want to speak to a group of youths after a 16-year-old boy was hit over the head with a bottle and then stabbed in the back of the head with the broken glass.

The boy was admitted to Tauranga Hospital after the attack in Brookfield on Saturday night.