Dog shot, cat kicked in break-in

Labrador cross Angel and her friend Fluffy recover at home at Ruatoki, near Whakatane, after being attacked. Photo / Alan Gibson

A dog was shot in the face three times and a cat was kicked in the head and left sneezing blood in a rural burglary that has horrified the animals' owners.

Two 15-year-olds have been charged under the Animal Welfare Act and yesterday appeared in Whakatane Youth Court after the break-in at a Taneatua lifestyle block last Friday.

The pets' owner, who did not want to be named, told the Herald she arrived home from playing squash at 9pm to find her lights on and the door of her shed open.

"My husband and the kids were out at a barbecue, so I thought, this is weird ... I drove further up and saw our shotgun on the barbecue table with bullets everywhere, so I thought stuff this, put the central locking on and bolted to the neighbours to phone the police."

After police arrived, she walked into her home to find it ransacked, with eggs strewn across the kitchen floor and firearms missing.

She said she then noticed her 3-year-old chocolate lab cross Angel was "very quiet" - and something was also wrong with Fluffy, the family cat.

"She just started sneezing and blood was coming out, and we saw what had happened to Angel ... we don't know if they did it while they were holding her."

The dog had been shot in the side of her face three times with a slug gun, and had to be held still as her husband removed the pellets from her head.

"I was just gutted. How could you do that? She was obviously just barking and they thought, 'we'll shut her up'," she said. "They're just pigs, to do that animals ... if they broke in and just took some clothes and a bit of food, you think, well yeah, okay - but doing what they did, they're just scum."

Some of the items taken have been recovered, but the family is yet to get back a rifle, a shotgun, cameras and a mountain bike.

Much of the belongings were retrieved from a Taneatua house raided by the armed offenders squad on Saturday, and from another property in nearby Ruatoki.

The two youths facing charges over the break-in and harming the pets have been remanded to a youth facility and are due in court again next month.

Brothers Ngahaka Kinghazel, 18, and Nohowaka Kinghazel, 20, have meanwhile been charged with burglary and will also appear again next month.