Police had to pepper-spray and Taser a dog so that ambulance officers could get to its collapsed owner on a footpath near the Hastings CBD yesterday.
At least five police vehicles raced to the scene and closed off the Queen St-to-Avenue Rd block of Hastings St during the late-morning incident, which started when a man collapsed while walking his dog.
It ended with the man being taken to hospital, and the recapture of the dog by a member of his family at a property nearby.
Sergeant Eden Sewell emphasised the dog did not bite anyone or attempt to attack. "It was simply trying to protect its master," he said. "They couldn't get to him."
Pepper spray had been effective in subduing animals in the past, he said, but when it didn't work yesterday a Taser gun emitting an electric charge was used, causing the dog to run off.
