The roaming rottweiler - now dead - who mauled cats in Kensington. Photo / Supplied
The roaming rottweiler - now dead - who mauled cats in Kensington. Photo / Supplied
A rottweiler that roamed inner-city Whangārei hunting and killing cats has been caught and put down.
The dog's destruction was one of 174 euthanised by Whangārei District Council over the past year and followed the rottweiler's casual tyranny of a Kensington neighbourhood.
During its reign of terror, the dog mauledto death a mother cat, leaving its kittens abandoned and now missing, and attacked an elderly witness' cat, wounding and traumatising it.
The harrowing attack happened in streets around Whangārei Boys' High School.
A pensioner, 83, spoke of how the stray tabby he had started feeding was taken by the big dog.
The cat, which he'd named Vicky, was last seen with her two kittens as a "happy little family" basking in the sun on his property. At the time, the man's own pet cat was in view.
"The three of them were quite happily sitting in the sun. I was sitting here that evening having my dinner and looking at my garden and [his cat] was out on the lawn when, next thing, this big rottweiler came across in front.
The elderly man recognised the dog as one that had previously attacked his cat. "By the time I grabbed my walking stick and got to the door, the dog had disappeared round the house."
That was when he heard the "big thump" followed by "an almighty scream and then silence".
The man saw the dog with something in its mouth and - unsure what it was - shouted at the animal as it raced off.
"I was bloody angry," he said, describing how his efforts to followed the dog were frustrated by "a bad heart".
The elderly man phoned his daughter and granddaughter who, along with help from Whangārei Boys' High School, searched for cat and dog.
That was when the stray's body was located under his mobility scooter.
"The poor little thing. She was well and truly dead. Her neck was broken and her throat had been torn out."
During the search, the dog returned but was scared off. He believes it was his own cat in the dog's mouth, which must have slipped out as it ran off. There was also no trace of the stray's kittens.
His own cat turned up hour later. "The moment he saw me he limped across and hopped up into my arms."
He said his cat had been acting "manic" and having seizures since the ordeal.
The elderly man, who has owned a rottweiler himself, said there's no excuse for them to roam, and the same rottweiler had previously attacked his cat and another stray on his property.
"We had a hullaballoo and it cost me around $800 to get both cats fixed up."
The three dogs on the evening of the incident.
The council's animal welfare contractors took a statement and "very kindly took the poor little mother cat away to bury it".
"I was really grateful because there's no way I could have dug a hole."
This sign ironically hangs in the elderly man's home... his cats were content until Friday evening's episode. Photo / Jodi Bryant.
There have been 281 call-outs for dog attacks to the council over the past year.
A council health and bylaws manager confirmed the owner of the dog involved took the dog to the vet the following day and had it put down. The council's investigation into the "failure of the person in charge at the time to control the dog" continued.
A resident in the street said dogs linked to the home of the rottweiler were known nuisances.
"We always have our gate shut as his dogs have got bigger and more aggressive and the rottweiler could easily leap the gate so when we see them coming, we round our dogs up inside."
Residents said the area was rife with stray cats. During lockdown, the problem had increased with cats unable to be desexed and more dumpings. One said: "There's big tom cats wandering around and leaping fences. At night the noise is terrible."
