Source: Radio New Zealand
Police at the scene of the fatal attack. RNZ
Animal control officers visited the property where Mihiata Te Rore was mauled to death four times, including the day before the attack.
Te Rore, 62, was visiting a person she knew at a property in the small Northland town of Kaihu when she was attacked and killed on Tuesday.
Police say the three dogs involved lived at the property.
Te Rore is the third person to be killed by dogs in Northland in the past four years, sparking calls for more to be done by local and central government to deal with the growing problem.
Police have been at the taped-off home where Te Rore died on Tuesday.
In a statement, Kaipara District Council said there had been four complaints about the dogs in November, December and this week, and had responded to each request on the same day.
“Staff visited the property on multiple occasions to attempt to speak to the owner, including reaching out to family and iwi liaison. When the dogs were seen they were on the property.
“In December staff managed to speak with the owner about compliance and keeping the dogs secure, including consequences if this did not occur. In February they visited the property twice, including the day before, but were unable to talk to the owner or uplift the dogs.”
The council said there had also been “multiple” proactive patrols in the area, looking for any loose dogs, including a door knock of every property along Kaihu Wood Road (no loose dogs were sighted during these patrols).
“Dog owners are responsible for their dogs – they have a legal responsibility to look after and control their animals but we also acknowledge that council’s animal control plays an important role in managing risks in the community. Our staff work with dog owners across the district every single day and are devastated that any such incident, in this case on private property, has occurred in Kaipara.
“We have a very small but extremely passionate team covering the whole of the district, and in their role they deal with a wide range of owners and dogs daily, often in complex and challenging situations.”
It said its animal management team was investigating the incident.
“The three dogs were secured after the event and have been impounded, and will be destroyed as soon as police have finished their investigation.”
‘All four have pack attacked my dog’
A local – who RNZ has agreed not to name – said authorities were warned in the past year about issues with the dogs.
He has had his own experience with the four dogs he says live at the property.
“They’ve actually come onto my property and attacked my dog,” he said.
“They pack attacked him, all four have pack attacked my dog, and that was just over six months ago.”
Like many in the community, he was frightened.
“It is quite stressful because you don’t even know if you’re going to get attacked and for me, I’ve got to go out my drive to get to my letterbox, and you don’t know whether the dogs are around the corner,” the man said.
“It’s really quite frightening.”
The man said Tuesday’s attack should never have happened.
“There were so many warnings before that happened and nothing had been done,” he said.
“I can’t believe that people are ringing dog control and yet nothing had been done.”
Statistics from the Kaipara District Council showed the number of dogs impounded by the council more than doubled over the four years from 2021 to 2025.
In the period from July 2022 to July 2025, there were 174 call-outs for dog attacks, but only one person was prosecuted in the same period.
RNZ asked the council to comment on these figures, but have not received a response.
The Kaipara District Council promoted cycle trails in the Kaihu area where Te Rore was killed.
Three years ago, Mike Wespel-Rose was biking on a track from Dargaville to Russell with his wife, when the pair were chased by dogs from a nearby property north of Whangārei.
“They were chasing us, and chasing us, it went on for quite a few minutes.”
“They jumped up on my wife’s bike […] we didn’t dare stop because God knows what we might’ve faced, so we just rode like crazy, very fearful about what might happen,” he said.
Wespel-Rose said the dog issue in the north is a symptom of wider problems with crime and poverty.
“It needs more resourcing doesn’t it, so that it can be dealt with more fully,” he said.
“It’s a tough one.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described Te Rore’s death as unacceptable, and said the council needed to act.
“I would expect that within seven days that the Kiapara District Council is taking action and going after the dogs, and packs of dogs that are out there,” he said.
“Just imagine being a mum with a young baby, or young toddlers, and the anxiety that that causes.”
Push to reform laws ignored
However, Auckland Council’s Animal Management said its push for the government to reform dog control laws over the past year had fallen on deaf ears.
Elly Waitoa from the council’s animal management department said she was shocked that as recently as Tuesday morning, the government had told them they were not considering changes to the dog control act.
Meanwhile, police have said they want to hear from anyone in the Kaihu community who has had issues with dogs roaming in the area.
Detective Senior Sergeant Shane Pilmer said the dogs involved were now with Animal Management.
“This was a very upsetting and tragic event in which a woman has suffered unsurvivable injuries,” he said.
“I know the community will have a lot of questions; our investigation is still in the early stages and our focus is on establishing all the facts in this case.”
‘It’s almost become normalised’
Liz Woodward, a trustee of the Best Dog Trust – which provides free desexing for dogs in Kaipara, Whangarei and Wellsford – told Checkpoint the number of animals was overwhelming.
“We’ve had a dog applied for desexing just yesterday, she had 11 puppies. That’s really common, just the sheer number of dogs and lack of affordability of vet care, and also people being able to get to vets,” she said.
“For Kaihu residents it’s 90 kilometres to get a vet in Whangarei for desexing, so it’s no easy undertaking.”
She said the price was also prohibitive.
“It ranges from about $350 for a vet in Whangarei that’s low cost, the vets we deal with in Kaipara and Wellsford are more expensive,” she explained.
“We recently desexed a 56 kilo dangerous female, and she would have cost the owner over $1200.”
Woodward said aggressive behaviour from pet dogs had become normalised in Northland.
“Probably in most communities in Northland there’s an understanding within your community that there are certain dogs on certain streets or in certain areas that you just don’t get too close to,” she said.
“It’s really disheartening to hear of tourists on our cycle trails, trying to enjoy our beautiful countryside, being chased by dogs. It’s almost become normalised up here.”
“I can’t even begin to explain how big the dog issue is for Northland.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand