A mother dog howled all night after she fished her six dead puppies out of an estuary after they had been dumped in a shopping bag.

The family who adopted Trooper - the puppy that was rescued after being found outside the Gate Pa shops, in Tauranga, with its ears chopped off - say he is settling in to his new home very well.

The pit bull puppy found in a Tauranga shopping area with his ears chopped off will head to a loving new home today.

Calls from the public about a mass seal slaughter near Kaikoura are drying up, while the killers remain at large.

Tauranga residents are concerned they are dealing with a serial animal abuser after a kitten was violently thrown against a door and killed this morning - the third horrific act of animal cruelty in the city in a month.

The slaughter of 23 seals on the Kaikoura coast last week has prompted debate on whether seals need to be culled in the area.

A 3-year-old dog has been burned to death by an arsonist who doused its pen with petrol and set it alight.

Janie, one of the world's oldest chimps in captivity, may soon be sniffing through a modified inhaler to treat her worsening asthma.

'No one who is a true hunter lets others carry their rifle or can't load their own shells. Sarah, you are a phony,' wrote one critic.

DOC says it is yet to receive any "concrete" information on who carried out the brutal clubbing to death of 23 fur seals near Kaikoura.

DoC is following up leads on who carried out the brutal clubbing of 23 fur seals near Kaikoura last week.