{"id":334718,"date":"2026-03-17T23:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/334718\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T23:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:04:10","slug":"dogs-mauled-at-a-tauranga-park-one-dead-and-another-lucky-to-be-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/334718\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogs mauled at a Tauranga park, one dead and another \u2018lucky to be alive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere was no one else in that part of the park, and it was unusually quiet for that time of day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Ruby (left) and Bella, owned by Murray Kenny, were attacked by dogs in the Opuru Rotary Park on March 1, 2026. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

He began swimming with Bella and Ruby watched them from the shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cBella was happy as. She loved the water and enjoyed swimming all the time,\u201d he said, tearfully.<\/p>\n

About five minutes later, Kenny said he saw three large \u201cvicious-looking\u201d dogs racing across the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were running straight towards us. I could sense an attack was imminent, and started screaming for the owners to come and get their dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruby crouched down and started to run back to his van, but in a \u201csplit second\u201d, the dogs attacked her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe screamed in pain. Bella sprinted as fast as she could to try and save her sister, but the dogs, three times her size, then turned on Bella.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MurrayMurray Kenny believes dogs he says attacked his pets also tried to get to his throat.<\/p>\n

Kenny said he ran to his dogs and tried to pick them up, but as he bent down, he was bitten on the chin by one of the dogs as Bella and Ruby tried to \u201cfight for their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also got lacerations on my fingers and elbow. I have no doubt the dog was trying to get my throat.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the man from the ute arrived to grab his dogs. He managed to lift Bella and Ruby into his arms and carried them back to his van.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other man didn\u2019t say anything, but he was respectful, and appeared remorseful and used his shirt to wipe some of my blood off my phone and glasses before handing them back to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenny said the woman with the man was \u201cyelling abuse\u201d, saying she had filmed the attack, and it was his fault because Ruby and Bella were off-lead.<\/p>\n

He said he managed to photograph the pair and the three dogs before they left the park.<\/p>\n

\" Bella, a 17-year-old fox terrier, suffered fatal injuries during a dog attack.<\/p>\n

Kenny said he didn\u2019t initially realise how badly hurt Bella was, and attended to Ruby first as she had multiple bite wounds to her stomach. The vet told him she was lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

But Bella\u2019s injuries were fatal. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe had severe bite wounds to her hindquarters, and arteries were severed. I thought the vet could stitch her up and she\u2019d be fine. But they couldn\u2019t stop the bleeding, and she bled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenny drove to Hamilton to bury Bella and was treated at Waikato Hospital for his own wounds. He contacted the police the next day. Tauranga City Council was also notified.<\/p>\n

\" Murray Kenny has had his beloved dogs Ruby (left) and Bella all their lives.<\/p>\n

Kenny wept as he described Bella\u2019s death and the change he had seen in Ruby since the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuby is not the same dog. She doesn\u2019t trust me anymore. Every noise, she freaks out. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t feel safe. She\u2019s traumatised losing Bella \u2014 as I am. I\u2019ve been to Victim Support, I can\u2019t sleep, and I haven\u2019t been eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Mount Maunganui man Murray Kenny’s dog Bella, 17, was killed in a dog attack in Maungatapu on March 1. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

He said the two fox terriers had been with him their whole lives and \u201cthey meant the world to me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201dThis has been a very painful experience. I\u2019m speaking out because I don\u2019t want anyone else to have to suffer the same shattering experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy world has been shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tauranga police area response manager Sergeant Oli Owen said the council\u2019s animal control was in charge of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Tauranga City Council animal services team leader Oscar Glossop said said the three dogs believed to be involved in the attack had been seized, and the council\u2019s investigation was ongoing. <\/p>\n

Glossop said he was unable to reveal the breeds of the dogs or other information that could identify \u201cindividuals, their dogs or their personal circumstances\u201d, in line with the council\u2019s privacy obligations.<\/p>\n

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional\/community reporter of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere was no one else in that part of the park, and it was unusually quiet for that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5831,95,9526,1975,5195,690,9213,16507,7975,111,43,139,69,5270,8143,1227,61],"class_list":["post-334718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alive","tag-and","tag-another","tag-at","tag-be","tag-dead","tag-dogs","tag-lucky","tag-mauled","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-park","tag-tauranga","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334718","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=334718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}