Northland police confirm family's claim Panguru man not killed by own dogs

Neville Thomson, 69, was killed in a dog attack on Thursday. Photo / Supplied

Police say a Hokianga man fatally mauled in last week's horrific dog attack was not killed by his own animals.

That backs up the family's account that the dogs responsible for the death of 69-year-old Neville Thomson belonged to a friend staying at his Puketawa Rd home.

Three dogs, which were behaving aggressively when emergency services arrived, escaped but were shot by police when they returned to the property.

Two were killed while a third fled into a bush area. It was, however, thought to have been fatally wounded.

Meanwhile, the Far North District Council reported that another dog returned to the property on Monday morning.

It was not known whether the female mastiff, which had not been seen at the property since Thursday, was involved in the fatal mauling.

Animal management officers were heading back to the remote property on Monday afternoon in a bid to capture the dog. If that proved impossible they planned to set a trap.

In total 28 dogs were located at the remote property about 3km north of Panguru.

Of those, 25 are being held at the Far North District Council's Kaitāia pound.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Dalzell, investigations manager for Far North police, said a post-mortem conducted on Saturday had confirmed a dog attack was the cause of death.

There was no evidence the deceased's own dogs were involved.

"It's likely that the dogs responsible were the dogs of another person that was staying at the address."

The owner of the dogs was living at the address but was not present when the attack occurred. He raised the alarm when he returned to the property.

"He has been very, very upset with what he found, and he's been doing everything he can to help us understand what has taken place," Dalzell said.

Police were still working out what charge could be laid, as well as reporting their findings to the Coroner who would make a determination and issue any recommendations.

He had no doubt there were lessons to be learned around keeping dangerous dogs, but it was up to the Coroner and ultimately politicians to decide what needed to be done.

Dean Myburgh, the Far North District Council's general manager of district services, said police were the lead agency but animal management officers were assisting where they could.

Dog traps provided to the police had since been returned.

Neville Thomson, 69, was killed in a dog attack on Thursday. Photo / Supplied

The 25 dogs held at the Kaitāia animal shelter included a Neapolitan mastiff cross identified as belonging to the deceased.

Police were satisfied that dog was not involved in the attack so it would be returned to the family once it had been registered.

Animal management staff would test the temperament of the remaining dogs.

They would not be rehomed if they were aggressive or there was any uncertainty about their suitability.

"That would transfer the problem back into the community, and we wouldn't do that."

None of the dogs, a mix of Neapolitan mastiff crosses and bulldog crosses, were registered.

It was "most unusual" to have 28 dogs on one property, Myburgh said.

"From a council point of view having that number of unregistered dogs on one property is in itself a problem.

"Where people have registered dogs in the past and haven't re-registered them, our animal management team endeavours to follow up, first with phone calls and then by physically going to the address.

"In this instance, no dogs were recorded as being at the property since 2014."

No complaints had been made about dogs at the "very remote" property.

"Unless information like that came to our attention, animal management officers wouldn't have a reason to go out there."

Residents of nearby Panguru, where Thomson was regarded as a "lovely man" devoted to his dogs, were shocked by his death.

He would call into town regularly for supplies, always with a dog in the passenger seat of his truck.

No one spoken to by the Advocate believed Thomson had been attacked by his own dogs.

Animal trainer and behaviourist Mark Vette said it was much more common for dogs to attack people other than their owners.

"It's quite rare that your own dogs would attack you, assuming you've got a bond with the dogs."

He said there were different reasons dogs attacked people, but it often happened when a person was trying to break up a dog fight.

"What can happen in a dog fight scenario is that they're trying to protect themselves from the other dog and they can become quite indiscriminate in their biting.

"The worst-case scenario is it may have been a pack situation where the dogs packed on the guy."

Vette said a lack of socialisation as puppies was most often what led to aggressive behaviour in adult dogs.

"It sounds like it's quite an isolated place where it was so it's likely they didn't get much socialisation with other people."

He said it was still possible to rehabilitate an older dog who has not been socialised enough in the crucial two to four-month-old puppy stage.

"It's also worth noting that it's a very rare incident and although it's frightening and it's worrying, we can do things about it," he added.