Tupapa resident Sammy Mataroa and his mother Moana have cared for four puppies and their mother and were sad to come home from work last Friday evening to discover three puppies missing.
“In the morning we fed the puppies before we went to work. When we got home, we couldn’t find three of the pups.
“Our 17-year-old neighbour said he saw the police come round and take them and shoot them in the paddock,” Sammy said.
He said they went down to check the paddock to see if their puppies’ bodies were there, but there was nothing to be seen.
“I am disappointed with the police” all our puppies have been killed.
We called them to ask if they came around to the house. They said no. I find out this morning (Saturday) from the neighbour that the police killed them all. They were puppies,” Sammy wrote.
Moana says she has made two calls to the police and even went to the police station the following day, but didn’t receive any answers.
“The police denied they took or shot our puppies. So we don’t know what happened to them.
“I don’t want to make any accusations to the police, but we just want some answers,” she said. Moana said it isn’t fair that three of her dogs have disappeared and she doesn’t know how.
“My biggest fear is that they have been killed and eaten,” she said.
“If they have been killed, then where are they?” Sammy added. With the law that each household can only have a maximum of two dogs, Sammy says it wouldn’t be right for the police to shoot dogs without first approaching the owner.
The owners say the puppies were only four-months old and dogs have to be at least five-months to be desexed.
Given that all animals are required to be desexed when first registered, “what happens to puppies if they aren’t old enough to be desexed? Are they killed?” Sammy said.
“We could have at least had a warning, and then we could have organised someone else to take ownership of them.”
Moana says before going home from work each day, she always gets food for her dogs.
“When I got home on Friday, only the mother dog and the male puppy was home.
I gave the mother dog food, but it wouldn’t eat, it just looked sad,” she said.
CINews have contacted the police dog control officer who denied any knowledge of the incident.
“It wasn’t the dog control, because dog control was off on Friday last week,” he said.
