Tairua dog attack: Victim and locals fuming over Thames-Coromandel District Council’s ‘lack of action’

A woman viciously attacked by four pig dogs in the Coromandel is lucky to be alive, a family member says.

The woman’s relative believes the Tairua attack was preventable and says the victim and other locals are frustrated by what they see as a lack of action from the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

The Herald can reveal the four tan and white dogs were unregistered at the time of the attack and wearing radio tracking collars commonly used by hunters.

The dogs’ owner, Dave Anscombe, told the Herald the two male dogs are contained at the Thames-Coromandel District Council pound and the other two female dogs were returned to him on the day of the attack. “I have to tell you I find this too emotional and hard to talk about. I couldn’t afford to have the dogs registered, I am poor, I have no money” Anscombe said.

Tairua,in the Thames-Coromandel District where a woman in her 60s was attacked by four dogs. Photo / Ben Dickens.

On May 22, about 7.30 am, the woman in her 60s was out walking her Labrador and Rottweiler on the Red Bridge Road public walkway when four pig dogs came running out of the bushes and started fighting with her dogs.

“She put the dogs in the car and locked them in, then the four dogs attacked her... pulling her to the ground and ripping her to bits,” the relative told the Herald.

The dogs nearly killed her, the relative believed.

“It was heart breaking - her clothes were torn off and she had big chunks of flesh hanging off her,” the woman’s relative said.

The woman was seriously injured and airlifted to Waikato Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

The woman was seriously injured and transferred from Tairua to Waikato Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

The relative said the woman needed urgent surgery but, thankfully, has now recovered.

“She had bites all over her neck, body, face and both arms and legs. The dogs tore her ligaments, arteries and veins... the woman and other locals want the council to do something so no one else gets hurt.

“Cyclists, mothers walking their babies, and the elderly walk this track every morning. ‘What does it take for something to happen? Someone to die?’” the relative said.

The woman has received no contact or an apology from Anscombe. He said he had no idea if charges would be laid against him.

“I haven’t apologised, absolutely not. I have nothing in particular to say to her at this stage, there is a lot more to this. My dogs should be returned to me,” Anscombe said.

The victim’s Rottweiler fought with the pig dogs.

Pig dogs that mauled a woman in her 60s were not registered. This photo is a stock image.

“One of the pig dogs was a bitch and on heat, the rottweiler was just defending himself, that’s all. He also got ripped to bits and could’ve died.

“No-one blames the dogs, it’s not their fault and no one wants to see anything happen to them...but to be honest, they should have put them down as hard as that might be. The worst thing is the council’s lack of action,” the relative said.

The relative said in their view the owner “needs to be sorted out”.

Anscombe told the Herald he and his four dogs live in Paku Hill next to another public walkway.

One local said she and her husband used to regularly run up Paku Hill every morning but stopped because they were terrified of the dogs going “nuts” at them.

They told the Herald they felt the dogs were “scary, vicious and go crazy” and they didn’t want to go near them.

In their opinion, it was “shocking” and “scary” that the dogs hadn’t been put down. The local resident believed the dogs were “extremely dangerous to not only other dogs but humans”.

Anscombe said his dogs only barked from inside their kennels.

“They have come from a farm and are used to letting me know when people are approaching. When they walk past they are right next to the house.

“The dogs aren’t being aggressive to people, they are locked away and they bark. They are used to that when they see people I’ve had people walking past at 3 in the morning,that’s when dogs should be alerting you and I tell them to shut up,” Anscombe said.

Mt Paku in Tairua, Coromandel. Photo / Ben Dickens

The Herald sent questions to the Thames Coromandel District Council to find out why the dogs were not registered at the time of the attack, how many complaints had been made about them previously, why they had not been put down, and why there has not been a prosecution.

A spokesperson said: “Our investigation into the dog attack in Tairua on Wednesday 22 May is ongoing and until it’s completed, we can’t provide any further comment”.

Thames-Coromandel District Council regulatory manager Brian Taylor previously said there had not been a noticeable increase in dog attacks in the district during the past three years.

Since July 2023, there had been 67 attacks on other animals by dogs and 32 on people, he told RNZ in May.

That compared to 56 attacks on animals and 34 on people in the year 2022/2023 and in the 12 months before that, there were 53 attacks on other animals and 37 on people.

The relative says the woman avoids the public walkway and walks her dogs on private property.

“It’s been a highly emotional time for everyone in the community. It’s upsetting nothing has been done,” they said.

In their view, the attack could have been avoided.

“Why are the two dogs still with the owner?”

Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards in 2022. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.