{"id":615702,"date":"2026-09-29T21:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615702\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:10:09","slug":"mt-albert-dog-attacks-mother-considers-moving-after-son-bitten-on-school-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615702\/","title":{"rendered":"Mt Albert dog attacks: Mother considers moving after son bitten on school run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018No child should have to be scared\u2019<\/p>\n

The mother said issues began when a roaming dog \u201ctried to have a go\u201d at her. She has been afraid to go walking since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to carry a big stick, maybe I\u2019ll carry a broom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, as her 19-year-old son was walking his sister home from school, she said a pit bull on a leash lunged and bit his arm.<\/p>\n

Although he was wearing a hoodie, the bite left \u201csome pretty deep puncture wounds\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her 13-year-old son also ran into trouble on his walk back from school. After taking a different route to avoid a particular dog, he came across another one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t roaming. It was on a lawn with a man and crossed the street to charge at my 13-year-old son, who wasn\u2019t even paying attention to it; he was on the other side of the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother said her \u201cterrified\u201d son bolted to get away from the dog. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually injured himself quite badly because he was running so fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo child should have to be scared of being attacked by a dog simply while walking home from school,\u201d the mother said. <\/p>\n

She said she had never had problems with dogs in Mt Albert until it \u201cboomed like crazy\u201d in the past six or seven years.<\/p>\n

A social media post she made about the incident drew comments from others who said they had faced similar experiences, including being chased by dogs while checking their letterbox or pushing a pram along the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to have them constantly looking over their shoulders, changing their routes, or worrying about someone else\u2019s bloody dog because some moron can\u2019t contain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Mt Albert mother says dog attacks and out-of-control canines are becoming a significant issue in the area. Photo \/ Thinkstock<\/p>\n

\u2018This is unacceptable\u2019<\/p>\n

Fairey said that during her 2022-2025 term on Auckland Council\u2019s Regulatory and Safety Committee, it was clear there was a problem in Auckland. <\/p>\n

She said it reflected an increase in dogs adopted during lockdowns, a reduction in desexing during the same period and since, and broader issues with new dog owners. <\/p>\n

Her fellow Albert-Eden-Puket\u0101papa ward councillor, Christine Fletcher, agreed there were \u201ca lot\u201d of animal management issues since Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people got dogs over the Covid period that probably had no or little experience in handling dogs. And we have seen a spike in incidents with dogs, not just in Mt Albert, but right across the whole region,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

Before 2019, council was looking at closing one of its dog shelters because there wasn\u2019t enough need.<\/p>\n

Since then, Fairey said council has had to increase Animal Management staff and add shelter capacity.<\/p>\n

\"\u200bAlbert-Eden-Puket\u0101papa\u200bAlbert-Eden-Puket\u0101papa ward councillor Julie Fairey told the Herald she was aware anecdotally of increases in roaming dogs across the ward. Photo \/ Corey Fleming <\/p>\n

Despite this, she said they were still \u201cvery stretched\u201d to respond as quickly as needed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has also been a big increase in aggression from dog owners towards people who raise issues, including our Animal Management officers and those who work in shelters. <\/p>\n

\u201cStaff can no longer patrol on their own due to threats and violence,\u201d Fairey said. <\/p>\n

She said there were also shortcomings with the law around impounding dogs, which council has asked central government to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier this year they said it wasn\u2019t a priority, but National have recently indicated they do intend to look at it after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fletcher said she understood there had been a dip in animal management callouts, but \u201ceven one attack is one too many\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people with their children to feel free that they can be walking safely to school. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unacceptable. And so those dog owners who have allowed a situation like that to exist are really letting the whole community down,\u201d Fletcher said. <\/p>\n

\"Albert-Eden-Puket\u0101papaAlbert-Eden-Puket\u0101papa ward councillor Christine Fletcher says there have been \u201ca lot\u201d of animal management issues since Covid. Photo \/ Nick Reed<\/p>\n

Fairey said the best thing residents could do was contact Animal Management to log reports of roaming dogs.<\/p>\n

She said taking a photo of the dog helped identify it and build a case if it was a dog often left to roam.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil can create a more accurate picture of where the problem areas are, how many dogs are roaming, and the impact it is having on local residents,\u201d Fairey said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018No child should have to be scared\u2019 The mother said issues began when a roaming dog \u201ctried to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,10049,5660,46919,40570,18205,9219,33527,2109,8454,101,4486,6178,2686,10048,111,139,69,90,247852,8145,4062,22639,213,5163,1361,1529,8238,102,104831],"class_list":["post-615702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-albert","tag-attacks","tag-bitten","tag-considering","tag-considers","tag-dog","tag-encounters","tag-family","tag-including","tag-left","tag-month","tag-mother","tag-moving","tag-mt","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-puncture","tag-run","tag-school","tag-son","tag-sports","tag-teen","tag-that","tag-three","tag-under","tag-with","tag-wounds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615702","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=615702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}