Thomson managed to lift Chiko by his harness and raise him above his head when the attacking dog latched on to Thomson\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n
After attempting to get in the car, the dog jumped up at Thomson again, which made Chiko slip out of his harness and continue to be mauled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want the dog ripping my dog to bits… I jumped on it to stop him rag-dolling Chiko,\u201d Thomson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just grabbed the collar and the side of his head so he wouldn\u2019t rip him anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whanganui District Council regulatory and compliance operations manager Jason Shailer said the council was aware of the attack and the attacking dog had been impounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the matter is currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate for the council to comment further at this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The attack left Chiko with a broken back leg in two places and multiple bite wounds in the hind legs and underbelly.<\/p>\n
Chiko underwent surgery on August 28 for his broken hind leg. Photo \/ Fin Ocheduszko Brown<\/p>\n
Chiko underwent surgery to save his back leg on August 28 and is healing well, Thomson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a slow process at the moment… he may never walk the same again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Thomson was also injured. A bite to his thumb has left it disfigured and he suffered a bite wound on his left arm.<\/p>\n
He required a night in hospital to get a skin graft on his arm wound and is undergoing physiotherapy for his thumb, which has limited movement.<\/p>\n
The neighbour who intervened also suffered bite wounds.<\/p>\n
Thomson said the attack was \u201cscary\u201d but he had to save his dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s my best mate; he\u2019s like my little son with four legs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the world to me, I couldn\u2019t let it happen. I\u2019d have never lived with myself if he got ripped up by a dog like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, I think we are pretty lucky to get away with what we did. We\u2019re still here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomson said there was a roaming dog problem in Whanganui.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s shocking, it shouldn\u2019t be like this. I always say, it\u2019s irresponsible dog owners, it\u2019s not the dogs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething\u2019s got to be done. Don\u2019t buy puppies if you don\u2019t want a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Givealittle page was set up by Thomson\u2019s family to help cover Chiko\u2019s surgical costs.<\/p>\n
Thomson said he was grateful for the support shown, financially and online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are good people in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomson managed to lift Chiko by his harness and raise him above his head when the attacking dog…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[47179,95,89,11425,26630,3246,288814,9219,5830,16718,10933,104,22259,101,2510,111,139,69,29541,11763,11590,39594,213,144601,1361,64872,112784,1883,102],"class_list":["post-586461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-4yearold","tag-and","tag-attack","tag-badly","tag-bite","tag-both","tag-chiko","tag-dog","tag-fought","tag-him","tag-injured","tag-injuries","tag-jack","tag-left","tag-multiple","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-recalls","tag-russell","tag-save","tag-scary","tag-sports","tag-terrier","tag-that","tag-thomson","tag-wandering","tag-whanganui","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586461","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=586461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}