Dogs escape pound to kill pet pig
A faulty enclosure at the Horowhenua pound allowed two dogs to escape and run down and savagely kill a beloved pet pig.
Janet Main’s 10-year-old kunekune Myrtle was killed two weeks ago by the dogs after they dug their way out of an an exercise yard with poor fencing, a dirt floor and no concrete edging. The pair were classified as suitable for rehoming.
Bloodstains still mark the path Myrtle took as the dogs chased her, ignoring the horses, goats and ponies she grazed with.
‘‘She didn’t have a hope,’’ owner Janet Main said of the pet she had raised from a piglet. ‘‘They weren’t going to stop until they killed her.’’
Myrtle was likely killed inside the wooden shelter she shared with fellow kunekune Newman on Main’s Levin property, which borders the Horowhenua District Council’s pound.
Although Main wasn’t home at the time of the attack, she said she believed that the blood covering the shelter’s walls and floor, and the drag marks in the grass outside, showed Myrtle was killed after she sought refuge in her shelter.
Main was spared the sight of her pet’s body, but her daughter, who gifted Myrtle to her mum for Christmas a decade ago, described the multiple wounds as horrific. ‘‘It would have taken her a long time to die.’’
The attack wasn’t the first time that animals meant to be contained by the council had escaped on to Main’s property.
Main said the pound was not fit for purpose, and a staff member had told her the facility was underresourced and insecure.
‘‘I want the council to tell me that my animals are safe on my property.’’
In a letter received by Main yesterday, council compliance manager Vai Miller apologised for the escape and said it ‘‘should not be expected of a pound facility’’.
The exercise yard had been closed down, and a review of staff processes about dog exercising arrangements would be undertaken, she said.
In a statement, the council said the dogs had been euthanised.
‘‘Further improvements are planned for the primary exercise enclosure.’’