![\"Sophie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sophie-greer-was-bitten-on-the-hand-and-back-of-the-arm-by-a-36T5U35E7ZD5ZELX57IL4VVTJI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Hastings woman who felt the teeth of a roaming Rottweiler sink into her thought she was going to die when she saw a second dog approaching.<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains graphic images.<\/p>\n
By Linda Hall, Local Democracy Reporter<\/p>\n
Sophie Greer was walking her family dog, 10-month-old cavoodle Lottie, on a reserve opposite the P\u0101k\u014dwhai Regional Park on Friday, July 24, about 9.40am when an unrestrained dog with no owner in sight approached them.<\/p>\n
Lottie was on the lead, and Greer said she turned and let her sniff the dog.<\/p>\n
Greer, a nurse, said the dog immediately began trying to \u201cdominate\u201d Lottie, so she went to pick her up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dog started jumping up at me, attempting to get to Lottie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greer felt her hand get bitten.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was screaming for help and yelling, \u2018Your dog\u2019s biting me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dog reared onto its hind legs on her right side, so she turned her back to it. It then moved to her left and grabbed the back of her arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt those teeth sink into my upper arm, and I was like, oh my God, it\u2019s just broken my arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the next jump it got Lottie\u2019s tail and yanked her. I went down too because I knew, if I let her go, she\u2019d be mauled. She\u2019s only like 7 or 8kg max.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greer, still holding Lottie, managed to get to her knees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the dog grabbed Lottie\u2019s back leg, and that\u2019s when he just tore her.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she spotted a man coming towards her at the same time as she saw another unrestrained Rottweiler approaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was on his way, but he was only walking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I was like, oh my God, he\u2019s got another Rottweiler with him. I\u2019m going to die here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting mauled, and if this other dog joins in, and there\u2019s no one else around and this owner does not look like he cares.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the owner got closer, he started yelling at the dog to \u201cget off\u201d, but he didn\u2019t get physically involved, she said.<\/p>\n
The owner apologised to her as she got to her feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I needed help, but he just walked away over the hill and disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was left alone with bites to her hand and the back of her arm, holding Lottie, who had a tear from her groin to halfway along her stomach and puncture wounds to her leg.<\/p>\n
She called her husband, telling him to pick up Lottie and take her to a vet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to do about myself, but my husband told me to call an ambulance so I could describe where I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sophie Greer was bitten on the hand and back of the arm by a Rottweiler while trying to protect her 10-month-old cavoodle Lottie. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Her left upper arm had a deep wound that needed stitches, but she said the injury to her hand, although more superficial, was the most painful. She was also covered in bruises.<\/p>\n
Lottie had 17 stitches to a T-bone-shaped wound. The treatment cost about $2000, with a further $400 in ongoing costs expected.<\/p>\n
Considering her injuries, Lottie was doing well, Greer said.<\/p>\n
If she could talk to the Rottweiler owner, she would ask him to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and hand his dog to the authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know your dog is dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time until this happens again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frightening to think this could happen to a child or an elderly person. I\u2019m a 38-year-old woman who could fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did not think she could face going back to the reserve or the P\u0101k\u014dwhai Regional Park again.<\/p>\n
She reported the incident to Hastings District Council and police.<\/p>\n
The council said Animal Control contacted Greer on the day of the attack to check on her welfare and took a victim statement from her three days later.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimal Control ranged the area and looked for any businesses with CCTV cameras covering the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice were contacted to advise them of the Animal Control investigation, which is continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council regulatory solutions manager John Payne said the Animal Control team responded to reports across the district, but officers could not patrol every street around the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand people can become frustrated when they see a roaming dog, but Animal Control can\u2019t be everywhere 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rely on the community to report incidents promptly and provide good information so our officers have the best chance of locating the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end of winter and early spring were common times for dogs to roam, particularly around lambing time, and owners needed to be vigilant, he said.<\/p>\n
Even dogs that were usually well-behaved could become a danger if allowed to roam.<\/p>\n
\u201cA dog that\u2019s allowed to run free is going to behave in line with its instincts \u2013 to hunt and chase. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to keep dogs properly restrained.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rottweiler owner had not been found at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hastings woman who felt the teeth of a roaming Rottweiler sink into her thought she was going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,20277,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-569393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-animals","tag-hawke-s-bay","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569393","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=569393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}