{"id":469045,"date":"2026-06-09T21:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469045\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:30:09","slug":"dog-euthanised-after-mauling-elderly-man-in-huapai-northwest-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469045\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog euthanised after mauling elderly man in Huapai, northwest Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trying to give the dogs enough space, he said he walked across the grass berm, close to the road. But he misjudged the length of the rope, and the dogs were able to reach him.<\/p>\n

Smith said it was \u201cso fortunate\u201d he was able to stay on his feet as both dogs launched their attack, jumping up at him, biting and scratching.<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike Smith, 83, suffered multiple bite wounds after being attacked by two dogs in Huapai.<\/p>\n

He fended off the animals by kicking them, before a neighbour heard the barking and stopped the attack.<\/p>\n

The neighbour drove Smith to a doctor, where it took hours to clean and dress his extensive wounds, which included a 2cm bite mark that \u201ccompletely ripped the flesh out, leaving only tissue\u201d, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite shaken; I do not like to think about what would happen if the dogs managed to tip me over.<\/p>\n

\" Two dogs tethered to a chair attacked an elderly man last week in Huapai, leaving him with multiple bite wounds. The dogs were seized by Animal Management and one of them has now been destroyed. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201c[The owner] should be fined big time … the owner needs to have, you know, serious consequences, not just dogs taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waitoa said the two dogs were seized after escaping the Huapai property and attacking the elderly man. <\/p>\n

She said the euthanised dog, a female, had previously been involved in a \u201cminor aggression incident\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm that the female dog was voluntarily relinquished by the owner on the day of the incident and has been humanely euthanised,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe male dog is being held while we continue to investigate the attack.\u201d <\/p>\n

\" Mike Smith, 83, says he is lucky to be alive after being attacked by two dogs in Huapai on Wednesday. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

A mother who posted about the incident on Facebook claimed nearby workers told her it was not the first time concerns had been raised about the dogs\u2019.<\/p>\n

The woman said staff from nearby businesses, including the childcare centre, were particularly concerned as children regularly walked through the area.<\/p>\n

According to the post, the dogs\u2019 owner was not home during the attack but returned after the commotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there was no apology or acknowledgement of what had happened, which was very disappointing given the seriousness of the situation,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson confirmed they were called, but directed all questions to the council.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trying to give the dogs enough space, he said he walked across the grass berm, close to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[146201,74,51,1558,72841,5205,9219,9213,15453,82705,202567,78,5158,7975,62865,111,139,44182,69,2738,237281,312,213,1361,23542],"class_list":["post-469045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-83yearold","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-canine","tag-council","tag-dog","tag-dogs","tag-elderly","tag-euthanised","tag-huapai","tag-in","tag-man","tag-mauled","tag-mauling","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northwest","tag-nz","tag-owner","tag-relinquished","tag-says","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-voluntarily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469045","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=469045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}