{"id":578333,"date":"2026-08-24T01:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578333\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:10:09","slug":"aranui-dog-attack-police-will-not-charge-anyone-after-christchurch-toddlers-death-animal-to-be-put-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/578333\/","title":{"rendered":"Aranui dog attack: Police will not charge anyone after Christchurch toddler\u2019s death, animal to be put down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police today confirmed no one would face charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonny\u2019s death has now been referred to the coroner.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Christchurch City Council spoke to person confirmed the dog behind the attack remained in its animal shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is scheduled to be euthanised this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonny-Charles\u2019 parents, Greg Watson and Jordan Doherty, earlier paid tribute to their little boy. <\/p>\n

\"GregGreg Watson and Jordan Doherty, the parents of 1-year-old Sonny-Charles Watson, who was killed in a dog attack in Christchurch have paid tribute to their “wee sunshine”. Photo \/ Givealittle<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sadness that we have lost our wee sunshine,\u201d they wrote on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cSonny was not just the light of our lives but everyone he came in contact with.\u201d<\/p>\n

They described him as \u201cthe most beautiful little boy\u201d, who was \u201cfull of love and laughter for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate all the love and messages from everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask for you to give us some time and respect to [grieve] before we get back to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeel free to send messages of love but we will not be responding until the time is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cFly high sunshine, love you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Givealittle page<\/a> was set up to support the couple and so far more than $55,000 has been donated. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur dear friends Greg and Jordan are facing the unimaginable following the sudden and heartbreaking loss of their 1-year-old son,\u201d said the person who set up the page. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis beautiful presence touched many lives, and he will be deeply missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TributesTributes have been left outside the house where the attack happened. Photo \/ Anna Leask<\/p>\n

\u2018Very sad situation\u2019<\/p>\n

Overend confirmed the dog had been removed from the Basingstoke St property<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said police were in close contact with Christchurch City Council animal control as they continued their inquiries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes speaking with those who live at the home, as well as providing them with support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police today confirmed no one would face charges. \u201cSonny\u2019s death has now been referred to the coroner.\u201d A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,3648,8212,181192,89,1344,5195,32294,4487,634,9219,6097,33445,42,43,5006,675,9214,281423,1361,1961,61,13835,150065,40,38,41,39,15358,686,1533],"class_list":["post-578333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-animal","tag-anyone","tag-aranui","tag-attack","tag-attacked","tag-be","tag-charge","tag-christchurch","tag-death","tag-dog","tag-down","tag-fatally","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-not","tag-police","tag-put","tag-sonnycharles","tag-that","tag-this","tag-to","tag-toddler","tag-toddlers","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-watson","tag-week","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578333","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=578333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}