Balclutha 81-year-old in desperate fight with dogs savaging her pet
Diane Le Sueur, 81, was taking her 8-year-old bichon-shitzu cross, Alice, to the small dog enclosure at Centennial Park about 11.30am on June 24.
"As we were passing the large dog park, an Alsation and a Rottweiler came bounding over very aggressively, barking and growling at Alice from the other side of the fence," Mrs Le Sueur said.
"I pulled her away, over on to the grass, and then they were at the gates and they got out out and they were just into her."
Her dog was pulled off her leash as the two big dogs attacked, she said.
"The Alsatian had no collar but I managed to grab it and tip it over and pin it on the ground under my knee, but the Rottweiler was huge.
"Everything went silent but I could hear it, the tearing and their breath and the howling ... I just watched them eating my dog."
She said the owner of the large dogs then ran out of the park to intervene, but the Rottweiler slipped its collar, and she was bitten while still trying to separate the animals during the attack.
After the animals were separated, both owners rushed to a nearby veterinarian.
From there, St John's ambulance was called to take Mrs Le Sueur to Clutha Health First hospital, where she received stitches in "a deep 2.7cm gash" on her right hand.
Alice had emergency surgery.
Mrs Le Sueur said the vet's report described how Alice's lungs were visible on arrival.
After the incident she made a complaint to the Clutha District Council and police, requesting both dogs be put down.
"They were so aggressive. I think they're a danger to the community," she said
"There's a playground right there ... what if it had been someone's small child?"
More than a week after the attack, she had heard nothing from council or the police and was disappointed the faulty dog park gates did not appear to have been fixed, she said.
Council chief executive Steve Hill said the incident was under active investigation.
"As the matter is part of an ongoing enforcement process, we can't comment at this stage.
"In regard to the gates, a latch has been adjusted and latches are functioning under normal expected working conditions. The internal gates are a spring loaded gate which don't have latches. These gates are primarily for creating a safety zone for persons to exit quickly in the event they need to vacate the park in an emergency.
"Policies around dog control have to fit within the requirements of the legislation Dog Control Act 1996," Mr Hill said.
"The dog park was built approximately two years ago ... this is the first recorded incident council has had for this facility."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
4 days ago
- Scoop
Time Running Out For Dog Registration
Wairarapa dog owners have one week left to pay their 2025/26 dog registration fees or face having a 50 percent penalty added to the cost. Owners of registered dogs received invoices for registration fees in early June. All dogs must be registered by 1 July of each year or before the dog is three months old. In Masterton District, all owners who register their dogs by 31 July go into the draw to win one of their dogs' registration fees back, with three chances to win. The registration year is the same across all councils and runs from 1 July to 30 June every year. This is a legal requirement under Section 36 of the Dog Control Act 1996. All dogs (except working farm dogs) registered for the first time must be microchipped within two months of registration.
Scoop
20-07-2025
- Scoop
Council Calls For Tougher Dog Laws As Attacks And Euthanasia Rates Climb, Rescuers Overwhelmed
Auckland Council is pushing for stronger powers under the Dog Control Act 1996 to address the growing number of roaming and uncontrolled dogs. Despite this, frontline rescuers and local leaders say the crisis requires immediate on-the-ground action. Jo Coulam, a volunteer at the Saving Hope Foundation, says rescue groups are overwhelmed and feel abandoned. Coulam criticises the council's desexing pilot for not targeting the right communities and highlights that rescue groups are carrying too much of the burden. Saving Hope has rehomed 637 dogs and puppies in the past month, with 46 requests received in a single day. 'We spoke in May about the Kāinga Ora houses and now, as we predicted, we have newborn puppies dumped on train tracks and in rubbish bins,' she says. 'Rescues like ours are left to do the hard work while trying to educate owners, but we can't do it alone. 'By 1pm that day we'd already had 32 more, including a mum and a litter of newborn pups. It's out of control.' South Auckland families at risk, MP warns Manurewa MP Arena Williams says the situation has worsened over the past two years, affecting families and elderly residents, particularly in South Auckland. 'This is why I've been calling on the Mayor and Councillor Josephine Bartley to pull together a taskforce. Central and local government need to work together for Aucklanders,' she says. 'Roaming dogs have got out of control in the last two years in Manurewa. Our kids and elderly people are at risk. Dog attacks are up, and we're now seeing roaming packs of unowned dogs. 'Manurewa needs new solutions to deal with this rapidly escalating issue. National has spent a lot of time telling councils what to cut. This is an opportunity for ministers to do something constructive and actually help Auckland with something that will genuinely benefit people in Manurewa and other communities affected.' Council defends response, calls for law reform Elly Waitoa, Animal Management Manager for Auckland Council, says public safety is their top priority, and that dog owners must take responsibility for their pets. Waitoa says that while desexing dogs is not the council's responsibility, they are stepping in because of the scale of the problem. She says the council is seeking stronger enforcement powers through legislative reform, which could include establishing conditions such as requiring fencing upgrades before a dog is released, mandating desexing in certain cases, and introducing mandatory reporting of serious dog attacks to enable timely intervention. 'We've got children being attacked, people being attacked, animals being attacked… children can't go to school because they're being terrorised by aggressive dogs… they can't walk to their local shop because of dogs,' she says. 'We don't have unlimited resources… it is the dog owner's responsibility to desex their dog… but we are doing everything that we can at this stage with the funding that we have. 'We're calling for more tools, like mandatory fencing standards and hospital reporting of dog attacks. It's about giving councils real options when education alone doesn't work.' Dog attack and roaming stats paint a grim picture In the past year, the Council received 16739 reports of roaming dogs, 1341 reports of dog attacks on people, and 1523 reports of attacks on other animals. Only 42 per cent of dogs were reclaimed by their owners, and more than 6000 were euthanised- over half of all dogs impounded. ACC claim data suggests the actual number of dog attacks is likely higher. Most serious attacks involving children happen in the family home and go unreported to Council, says General Manager Robert Irvine. 'Introducing mandatory hospital reporting would allow us to intervene and put measures in place to prevent attacks from happening again,' he says. Proposed changes to the Dog Control Act To help reduce attacks and improve enforcement, Auckland Council is asking the Government for powers to: -Mandate desexing policies -Require desexing before releasing dogs from shelters -Shorten the shelter holding period from seven to five days -Detain dogs post-attack if deemed dangerous -Increase fines for obstructing officers or breaching orders -Set localised infringement schedules -Require hospitals to report serious dog attacks 'These changes make good common sense and would greatly improve our ability to protect Aucklanders from dog-related harm,' says Irvine. 'They would not affect the majority of dog owners, who we know are responsible.' Councillors say more regional support is needed Chair of the Regulatory and Safety Committee, Councillor Josephine Bartley, says most dog owners are responsible, but stricter rules are now necessary. 'There is a group that just doesn't seem to care. Their actions are putting our communities at risk, particularly our tamariki, so having stricter rules around things like fencing and desexing has become necessary.' Manurewa - Papakura Councillor Daniel Newman says local board budgets are insufficient to respond to the scale of the problem. 'I don't want to have to be looking around at local boards trying to fund desexing vouchers and what have you,' he says. 'This has to be a regional response to a region-wide problem.' SPCA backs action but says national investment needed[SUBHEADING] SPCA National Community Outreach Manager Rebecca Dobson says the Council-SPCA pilot only began in June and is too early to judge. 'Since 2022, SPCA has desexed 1294 dogs in Auckland. That's part of a national programme that's seen 55000 animals desexed and more than 200000 unwanted litters prevented.' She says meaningful progress requires a significantly larger investment, estimated at more than $75 million. 'Rescue groups, SPCA, councils, vets and communities are all grappling with the fallout of people not desexing their pets. None of us can fix this alone. Desexing needs to become a priority for all pet owners.' Dobson also notes that enforcement is the Council's role, not the SPCA's. 'The public should contact their local council when it comes to roaming dogs, dog attacks or public safety issues. SPCA works under the Animal Welfare Act, focused on cruelty prevention.' Council commits to further action The Council has committed $5.9 million to increase patrols and community education and says further funding proposals are being prepared for next year's annual plan. The message to dog owners is clear: keep your dogs secure, desexed and under control.
Otago Daily Times
03-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Owner offered to put dogs down after Balclutha attack
The owner of two large dogs that savaged a smaller dog and injured an elderly woman in Balclutha says she offered to have her pets put down immediately. The woman asked not to be named after threats were made following yesterday's Otago Daily Times story about the attack. She said it did not excuse what happened, but there was more context and that her recollection of events differed from that of 81-year-old Diane Le Sueur, the owner of the smaller dog. Mrs Le Sueur told the ODT she was walking Alice, her 8-year-old bichon-Shi Tzu cross, on June 24 when a German shepherd and a Rottweiler came bounding out of the Balclutha Dog Park. The larger dogs badly injured Alice and Mrs Le Sueur needed stitches in "a deep 2.7cm gash" wound on her right hand received when she tried to break up the dogs. The owner of the German shepherd and Rottweiler said the dogs were barking at each other through the fence as the smaller dog, which was jumping up at the fence, went past. She called her dogs to her and was cleaning up after one of them when she heard the latch to the dog park's gate open and looked up to see her dogs going through the gates, and "all the dogs fighting outside the park". "My dogs were biting and I do not excuse that, but it didn't look like predator-prey behaviour ... It looked like dogs having a nasty scrap." She described getting her hands between the dogs and lifting Alice to her chest while Mrs Le Sueur screamed. "I carried [Alice] to her car, got my dogs in my car and followed her to the vets." The vet centre asked the woman to wait outside while Mrs Le Sueur went in to get extensive emergency treatment for Alice. Outside, the woman supplied her details and driver's licence, called a family member to join her, took her dogs home and returned to find Mrs Le Sueur had gone to hospital. The woman said they spoke to animal control that night, too. "We ... said if you need us to put the dogs down we will go and do that right now ... it would be horrible, but we will do it. "They said seizure and euthanasia was not necessary right now; they would investigate and saw it as some dogs having a scrap. "I went home and contacted my insurer and called the vets with all the policy details the next morning." She said animal control visited in the morning and met the dogs and told her they would be classifying them as "menacing". "I'd already been online the night before and ordered muzzles for them." She said the dogs, a 2-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd and an 8-year-old, "70kg" Rottweiler, were both de-sexed, had no history of trouble, and she and her family had cared for those large breeds "most of her life". She had initially only been focused on making sure everyone was safe and getting the help they needed, and once they were, she burst into tears, she said. "I was distraught ... when I shut my eyes to sleep, I just keep seeing it playing over and over. "I would have reached out to [Mrs Le Sueur] appropriately, but I've been supplied with no information at all. I didn't learn her name till I saw it in the paper." She said she had done everything she could during and after the attack and was surprised to discover Clutha District Council chief executive Steve Hill had said the incident was still under investigation after animal control officers gave her the impression her dogs were being classified as menacing. After four days with the vet, Alice is recovering at home with Mrs Le Sueur, whose right hand is bandaged and immobile. "The vet says [Alice] has internal stitches, which will dissolve. I don't know what we'll do if she has ongoing issues," Mrs Le Sueur said. "I can't feel or move my hand. "Council says they need all the paperwork before they make a final decision, but I haven't received a hospital report myself." She was frustrated the large dogs had not been seized and impounded, pending the council's outcome. Mr Hill said council staff could only seize the dogs if a dog control officer or dog ranger had reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed under the Dog Control Act. Staff were still investigating to "determine what are the grounds and a decision as to the enforcement path", he said. "It should be noted that the police also have powers, should they choose to intervene. "Ultimately, council, as the enforcement authority, will give serious consideration to all aspects of the case and make an enforcement decision. It is in everyone's interest for council to act with alacrity, but also to act carefully, and give the matter due consideration. "I trust our answers will assist the community [to] be informed about the situation. Everyone is entitled to due process and neither Facebook nor, with respect, the media are appropriate mediums to give due process," Mr Hill said.
