Prized boxer mauled to death
A Glenbrook man is frustrated at Auckland Council’s slow response after his award-winning show dog was savagely mauled to death.
On July 22, Paul Goodwill found his beloved four-year-old boxer Celtic, fighting for his life after a suspected dog attack.
‘‘I arrived home after work and found him lying under the house, he was giving in to his injuries and was bloodied and bruised.’’
Goodwill rushed Celtic to the 24-hour vet clinic, where vets worked on him overnight.
‘‘They were actually shocked that he lasted the night,’’ Goodwill said.
However, by midday the next day Celtic died from his injuries.
Celtic competed in dog competitions throughout the country and last year was named Best of Breed at the Eukanuba 2015 New Zealand Kennel Club National Dog Show.
Goodwill said Celtic was brought in from Australia, and a lot of hard work and thousands of dollars had been put into turning him into a championship-winning dog.
‘‘He wasn’t an aggressive dog, and we suspect he’d been trying to protect another dog.
‘‘If there was more than one dog, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.’’
Goodwill, who use to work in animal control, said he immediately contacted the council on discovering Celtic’s injuries, and after no response, he called again on August 3 to prompt staff to investigate a possible dog attack.
‘‘They said they’d escalate it to management and get something started as of today (August 13), I still haven’t heard anything from council.
‘‘My concern is that what other dogs are roaming around and are they going to do this again?’’
Auckland Council team leader Animal Management south, Alex Rodwell, said on Wednesday, when a complaint was made over 24 hours after the incident occurred, as was the case with this incident, the first response was to contact the complainant by phone.
‘‘The owner said that he did not witness the attack or know where the offending dogs came from, so we had no line of enquiry.’’
Since this attack, Rodwell said no further dog attacks in the area had been reported.
Rodwell said if the dog responsible was found, the dog owner could be taken to court, and could be fined or have their dog classified as menacing or dangerous.