![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ashlei-sherwood-sits-with-her-surviving-dog-kylo-near-the-sp-V5PE2C4WXBAL7GIUCWG2CJ2VXI.png\")
<\/p>\nIf Charlie the 11-year-old chihuahua\u2019s legs had been a little faster, he\u2019d have reached the cat door that guaranteed his sanctuary.<\/p>\n
By Linda Hall of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Instead, Ashlei Sherwood found him dead, covered in blood and saliva, when she came home from work.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d been chased, caught and killed by her neighbour\u2019s American pitbull.<\/p>\n
A month later, Sherwood sits stroking her surviving chihuahua, 5-year-old Kylo, in her Hastings home.<\/p>\n
Sherwood says Kylo is lucky. He survived an attack by the same dog a year ago. And that\u2019s why she\u2019s so furious.<\/p>\n
She feels she\u2019s been let down, and that Charlie could have been saved if Animal Control had taken a harder stance with the pitbull after the first attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel as if I am living in a nightmare,\u201d Sherwood says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel devastated and can\u2019t stop thinking about how easily it could have been prevented if Hastings District Council had taken the first attack more seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherwood, a Hastings Girls\u2019 High School teacher, said on the day of the first attack, Kylo had likely only survived because a neighbour on the other side of her back section property was home when it happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cKylo is really vocal, so he was just screaming and screaming and the neighbour\u2019s teenage son jumped the fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dog didn\u2019t have a collar, so he whipped his belt off and was trying to pull it back, then his mum and dad came to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
After reporting the attack, Animal Control visited Sherwood and her partner.<\/p>\n
An incident report from the time, seen by Local Democracy Reporting, said that because there was \u201cno blood drawn\u201d, there were \u201cno puncture wounds\u201d and the dog was \u201cnow secured\u201d, the council would take the option of \u201cfurther\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n
The report also said the owner of the dog was co-operative, had agreed to pay Kylo\u2019s vet fees and to improve the fence between the properties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ashlei Sherwood sits with her surviving dog Kylo near the spot where she found her beloved 11-year-old chihuahua cross Charlie dead after being mauled by the neighbour\u2019s dog. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Sherwood said Animal Control officers later returned to inspect an improved fence, which included bamboo screening and an additional layer of corrugated iron. They said the dog would not be able to get over it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was really panicky, and I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know, I can\u2019t leave my dogs here, it\u2019s not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
She claimed the animal control officer told her \u201ctrust me it\u2019s not going to get over that fence\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I believed her, and the owner of the dog. She came around and apologised and told me she would supervise the dog outside and when she was out it would be inside, and so I trusted her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie’s last day \u2013 a desperate dash to safety<\/p>\n
Sherwood is emotional as she recalls the Friday Charlie died.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear exactly how the pitbull got into Sherwood\u2019s property. The dog\u2019s owner told Hastings District Council in a written statement her dog had \u201cpushed through the side gate off the garage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sherwood claims it likely jumped into another neighbour\u2019s property and then over a fence into hers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home from work and opened the front door. They always greet me, but only Kylo was there. I started running around the house, thinking he must be trapped in a room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I looked at Kylo, he was panting, his tail between his legs and I started really panicking and hyperventilating.\u201d<\/p>\n
She ran outside. \u201cI had a quick look, couldn\u2019t see anything. I checked the fence and thought, it\u2019s OK, the fence is still intact.<\/p>\n
She said she went and asked some neighbours and they said they had heard barking about half an hour before, but nothing since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI immediately thought ‘that dog’, so I ran back home, went around the back … and, right by the door, I found Charlie. He was covered in blood, covered in saliva, my heart dropped. I could immediately tell he was dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he had been just one second faster, he would have made it through the cat door.<\/p>\n
‘I just started freaking out \u2013 I was in shock’<\/p>\n
A neighbour hearing her distress came over. They wrapped Charlie in a towel and took him into the house.<\/p>\n
Animal Control was called and another neighbour said they had seen the dog on Sherwood\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
The owner surrendered her dog, and it was euthanised.<\/p>\n
The owner wrote in her statement to the council that she was \u201cdeeply sorry for the damage my dog has caused\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will cover any costs. I am deeply sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
She declined to comment to Local Democracy Reporting.<\/p>\n
Sherwood claims Charlie would still be alive if animal control officers had taken the first attack more seriously.<\/p>\n
A council report following the fatal attack says it appeared to have happened without provocation and the owner was aware of the dog\u2019s aggressive disposition.<\/p>\n
Sherwood said if the neighbour’s son hadn\u2019t been home the first time, the outcome for Kylo would have been very different.<\/p>\n
She said Kylo was only 3kg, and claims if blood had been drawn in the first attack, he \u201cwould be dead\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo basically, a dog had to die for something to happen,\u201d Sherwood says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has just ruined this home for me. The memories are everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I do the recycling, I see him [Charlie] lying there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will probably sell our home. I think I\u2019m done here.\u201d<\/p>\n
A council spokesperson said dog owners were responsible for ensuring their dogs were securely contained on their property, regardless of whether it was fenced or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not Animal Control\u2019s responsibility to ensure people have adequate fencing in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn responding to [the first] incident, Animal Control dealt with the situation at hand and required the offending dog owner to improve this part of the boundary fencing that was not sufficiently secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government is currently reviewing the Dog Control Act<\/a> following a number of attacks, including the death of a woman in Northland<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u2013 Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Charlie the 11-year-old chihuahua\u2019s legs had been a little faster, he\u2019d have reached the cat door that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,20277,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-507744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-animals","tag-hawke-s-bay","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507744","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=507744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}