Some of the blood left behind from the injured dog.
Some of the blood left behind from the injured dog.
A dog was flung nearly 4m into the air, landing on the side of the road, after being hit by a car fleeing police through the Auckland suburb of Stonefields yesterday.
Tayla Ranger told the Herald she initially believed something had fallen off a truck when she saw something in the air while driving to work along Ngahue Drive.
“But I saw the head start to flop and it started to roll and then I realised it was a brown pitbull.”
She said the dog flew at least 4m in the air, barrel-rolled about six or seven times after landing and was then lying on a grass verge.
Ranger and people in another car stopped and soon realised the vehicle that had hit the dog was being pursued when three police cars came flying by with their lights on.
“We tried to get the dog but it started running off and it was covered in blood,” she said.
“We flagged down a cop car that was a bit behind the others and the other couple [spoke to the] cops, saying we needed to find the pitbull.”
Auckland woman Tayla Ranger pulled over and flagged down police after she saw a pitbull hit by a car and flung 4m in the air.
However, the police responded they were too busy chasing the fleeing vehicle.
By then, Ranger and the other couple had lost sight of the dog.
“I went to work and got my mum to call animal control and they listed it as critical.”
Auckland Council animal management east acting team leader Michelle Bromley told the Herald the council had received reports of a roaming dog at Ngahue Drive, Stonefields yesterday morning but had been unable to find the dog.
“We are saddened to hear reports that a dog was dragged behind a car.”
A dog was hit by a car in Stonefields, Auckland and then fled into a nearby golf course.
Police said they were looking for a car that had failed to stop. A spokesperson said they were now “following lines of inquiry to locate the driver”.
Ranger said she has been left traumatised by the event and keeps replaying the image in her head.
“I definitely won’t forget it.”
David Williams is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist who joined the Herald in 2023. He covers breaking news and general topics.
