By BRIDGET CARTER and TONY GEE
Family members of Northland dog breeder Yvonne Harris believe she died after being bitten while trying to break up a fight between three alaskan malamutes staying at her home.
Yesterday, the dogs - Boysy, Lulu and Digga - were picked up from the Whangarei pound by Mrs Harris' daughter, Desne.
The dogs, which will not be put down, will now live with Desne Harris in Auckland. They were taken from inside Mrs Harris' Ruakaka house by an animal control officer on Wednesday when she was found dead by a neighbour.
The children of Mrs Harris, 73, drove up from Auckland to pack up her things, air her house and collect her dogs yesterday.
And they were trying to understand how their mother, who had never before been injured by a dog in the 30 years she had lived with them, could have been bitten by one of the alaskan malamutes.
One belonged to Desne Harris and Mrs Harris owned the others.
She let the dogs live inside her small weatherboard house, which has a backyard with a high metal gates to keep the dogs secure.
The dog lover had been known to let one of the alaskan malamutes sleep in her bed with her at night, Desne Harris said. "She cuddled up to it and it snored beside her."
Mrs Harris' son Tyrrell said the most likely explanation for her death was that the three dogs were fighting and his mother was bitten when she went to break them up.
"All we know is that it was an accidental death and that she was found with a puncture mark on her leg," he said.
"Something has happened and she has been caught in the middle."
Police said it seemed as though a dog bite had cut her varicose veins, causing severe blood loss and probably her death.
Mrs Harris had probably been dead inside her home with the dogs since Sunday.
Desne Harris said the family had a suspicion about which dog had bitten her mother, but did not elaborate.
Tyrrell Harris said the dogs had been known to scrap among themselves, but generally they were good-natured. He was quick to distance the case from other recently publicised dog attacks on people.
The malamutes could not have deliberately hurt Mrs Harris, he said.
"They are not that type of dog."
The dog control manager for Environmental Northland, Keith Thompson, said the alaskan malamutes, which he described as "a box of birds" yesterday, had been looked after at the pound for free because they had nowhere else to go.
Police told Mr Thompson that there was no reason for the dogs, which he described as top of the line, to be destroyed or impounded.
Whangarei Police area controller, Inspector Paul Dimery, said results of an autopsy had been given to the coroner to determine how Mrs Harris died.
Any action taken about the dogs was the district council's responsibility under the Dog Control Act.
Dr Garry Clearwater, an emergency medicine specialist at North Shore Hospital, said the hospital saw several cases of varicose-vein bleeds a year. Because the vein wall was thinner it was vulnerable to cuts.
He said when a varicose vein was cut, the bleeding was very vigorous.
Herald feature: When dogs attack
How you can help
A trust fund has been opened for 7-year-old dog attack victim Carolina Anderson. You can send a cheque to: Carolina Anderson Trust Account, BNZ, PO Box 46-294, Herne Bay, or donate over the internet to BNZ account number 020 248 000 3002-000.
The Herald is backing an appeal to raise money for a $150,000 operating-room microscope for Middlemore's plastic surgery unit. The microscope is essential in minute plastic surgery work such as reattaching nerves. Middlemore has two, used on Carolina Anderson and the victims of the Pipiroa sword attack, but they need replacing. Donations can be sent to: The Microsurgery Appeal, Editorial Department, New Zealand Herald, PO Box 706, Auckland.
