The incident occurred in full public view and, when the man realised he was being watched, his behaviour became \u201cincreasingly erratic\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe began talking to himself, waving the [hammer] and displaying signs of instability.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rodgers and her children were deeply distressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe behaviour was cruel, reckless, and conducted in a public setting\u201d.<\/p>\n
A p\u016bkeko. Photo \/ Thinkstock<\/p>\n
After the encounter, a complaint was laid with Auckland Council, and police were notified.<\/p>\n
Waitemat\u0101 Police confirmed they were investigating a report of p\u016bkeko being mistreated yesterday at Shakespear Regional Park, a pest-free wildlife sanctuary.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice were advised around 11.40am on Thursday, 18 September, that one person was harming p\u016bkekos. Inquiries are continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident occurred yesterday at Shakespear Regional Park in Army Bay. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
Scott De Silva, Auckland Council\u2019s manager of regional parks, said the council was aware of the incident and was taking it \u201cvery seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very proud of the work and success of the sanctuary. The park should be a safe place for wildlife, and for visitors wanting to immerse themselves in nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff member\u2019s reported actions do not align with our approach to managing wildlife. We want to assure you that we are looking into it and will take the appropriate next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council confirmed the staff member would not be working at the regional park while the matter was investigated and would \u201cfocus on other park-related work\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this is an employment matter, we will not be commenting any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shakespear Regional Park is Auckland\u2019s most visited and accessible open sanctuary, integrating conservation, recreation and farming that provides a pest-free habitat for wildlife. An absence of predators has led to increasing numbers of kerer\u016b, t\u016b\u012b and p\u016bkeko.<\/p>\n
The council said p\u016bkeko were \u201ca beloved native species present in our parks and sanctuaries\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOccasionally they interfere with other operations and, if control is deemed necessary, we obtain permits from Fish & Game and use approved methods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incident occurred in full public view and, when the man realised he was being watched, his behaviour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,1554,95,51,4058,5205,181,30548,30546,17709,111,43,139,69,1118,8143,30547,675,6289,544,427,1961,21419,13118,1455,5977,406,12767],"class_list":["post-32048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-alleged","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-contains","tag-council","tag-details","tag-distress","tag-harming","tag-investigating","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-park","tag-pkeko","tag-police","tag-readers","tag-some","tag-story","tag-this","tag-towards","tag-violence","tag-warning","tag-which","tag-wildlife","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}