Rotorua council apologises after dumped rotting bones not removed for two months

A council has apologised after failing to pick up the dumped rotting bones of a large butchered animal for two months, despite a Rotorua ratepayer reporting them five times.

Ōwhata resident Haylee Ellen said she first called Rotorua Lakes Council about the “dead animal carcass” on Gee Rd on November 4. After Rotorua Daily Post inquiries, the council removed the remains on Monday and has acknowledged its service was not up to standard.

Some of the large animal bones left scattered on both sides of Gee Rd, photographed this month. Photo / Aleyna Martinez

Ellen said a “huge” pile of household rubbish dumped in the rural area was picked up after she started calling the council, but she was twice told they could not find the animal remains left on both sides of the rural road.

“Possibly had a man-look,” Ellen said.

“The first phone call, I reported it and was asked to leave my name. I said ‘No, it’s okay, can you just come and pick it up?’”

When she called two weeks later, she said the same operator told her people had “been out and we can’t locate it”.

Two days later, Ellen was walking her dog – which kept revisiting the remains – when she called a third time.

She nudged the bloodied bones out from the long berm grass to make them easier to find.

Some of the rotting animal remains left on Gee Rd which were first reported to the council in November.

“It was pretty gross when it was ... rotting, [with] maggots and slime,” she said.

“I used my foot so I didn’t have to touch it, then I gave her the power pole numbers to find it,” she said.

On November 21, she called again but said she was told the remains couldn’t be located. She called for the fifth time the next day.

When the council didn’t respond to the fifth call, she considered picking it up herself.

“My son basically wouldn’t let me. He said, ‘No, ring the council, that’s their job. That’s what you pay for’.”

Ellen said in her view, considering the thousands of dollars in rates residents paid toward services such as rubbish collection, the council’s slow response was not good enough.

Council apologises

In a Wednesday statement, council director of infrastructure and environmental solutions, Russell George, apologised and acknowledged the service had not been satisfactory.

“Reports of illegal dumping are generally dealt with by our contractors swiftly but we accept that in this instance the level of service we should be providing to our community was not met, and we apologise,” he said. The council was taking steps to ensure this did not happen again.

“The bones, which appeared to be the remains of an animal that had been butchered, were removed by contractors on January 6,” George said.

Rotorua Lakes Council has apologised for not providing the level of service it aimed for. Photo / Andrew Warner

Ellen was also concerned about how high the berms had been allowed to grow and said there was confusion about who was supposed to mow them.

“[I believe] whoever is mowing the one strip along the side of the road pushed the bones out of the way to do it, but I don’t know who,” she said.

George said the council had “not been mowing the verges on Gee or Fairbank Roads up to the fence line”.

“Like other rural roads in the district, these are mown twice a year, with vegetation mown to 2m from the edge of the roadway.

“Vegetation control is recognised as a major factor in road safety, and rural mowing is done to provide adequate sightlines at intersections and entranceways and to signs, hazards and edge-marker posts,” George said.

Other homeowners in the area were also frustrated.

One, who asked not to be named, questioned what his rates were being used for.

“I don’t think we get the services up here we deserve for the rates we pay,” he said.

He said he had cycled past the “disgusting” remains while on his work commute and the animal was “something bigger than a sheep”, based on the big rib bones.

“I assume it’s something a hunter has caught in the forest and has dumped it there. I mean, it wasn’t hacked up. It was well-butchered,” he said.

He said Gee Rd was often used as a “dumping ground” for household rubbish.

“It’s not the first carcass we’ve had on the street either, or other rubbish.”

George said the council had received two reports of illegal dumping instances on Gee Rd in the past 12 months, namely “the carcass remains and the dumping of household rubbish in November 2024”.

Restore Rotorua's Tracey McLeod was recognised for collecting rubbish in abandoned trolleys along Pererika St. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tracey McLeod, a contributor to Restore Rotorua and the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers groups known for her efforts to pick up trolley-loads of litter and mow overgrown berms, said she believed the council had made efforts to clean up Rotorua’s CBD, “but the outer parts still needed attention”.

“The presentation of the city as far as the mowing, I think that has improved in the actual inner city centre itself.”

She hoped to see Rotorua regain the “Most Beautiful City” crown, which it won six times between 1999 and 2010.

Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.