Woman's battle to get help for barking dog tied up with electrical cord

An Auckland woman who found a dog tied up by its foot with electrical cord, with no food or water in sight after more than 12 hours of barking, says Auckland Council told her it could take up to three days to investigate.

The woman said the dog started barking at a property a few houses from hers on the evening of last Saturday.

"It was going nuts when I arrived home at 11pm. According to neighbours it started a couple of hours earlier. One of the neighbours was trying to put their baby to sleep," she said.

She said it wasn't the first time. In May, she saw multiple dogs at the same property. The tenants repeatedly left the dogs tied up outdoors for long periods - sometimes overnight - during which they barked constantly, prompting noise complaints from several neighbours.

At about 1am, she walked to the property and shone a torch over the fence. "I saw the dog tied up with no visible food or water."

The woman, who 1News has agreed not to name, rang Auckland Council's dog complaints line, an 0800 number for dog attacks, aggressive dogs and excessive barking, and mentioned the previous complaints about the same property.

She said staff logged a report but told her it would be investigated within three days, and it was very unlikely anything would be done that night.

She then called the Auckland council team that handles dog welfare and neglect complaints, including dogs left without proper food, water or shelter.

She said it also logged a report but gave the same three-day time frame.

She tried the council's noise control team, but they referred her back to animal management.

Finally, she rang police on the 105 non-emergency line.

"They apologised and said it was an issue for council. They recommended contacting the SPCA, but they are only available during the day."

By late the next morning the dog was still barking, and the occupants still weren't home, she said. So, she climbed the fence to get a closer look.

"Perhaps that was a poor decision on my part in terms of my safety, but I could see immediately that the dog was tied up with electrical wire."

She said the cord had been wrapped around the dog's foot, and she believed it was done deliberately to stop the dog escaping. The dog had then tangled itself around the base of a trampoline.

“It could barely move a metre," she said.

"It was pretty aggressive, but I couldn't tell if that was its usual demeanour because it was clearly in distress – as I would've been too."

She said there was no food or water anywhere in sight. She filmed the dog and sent the videos to the SPCA, which she said treated it as a high-priority case.

An SPCA team arrived within about two hours and took the dog away.

The SPCA confirmed to 1News it attended the property and that its investigation is ongoing.

The woman said she was incredibly impressed by how quickly the SPCA responded.

"I'm not much of an animal person, but after this incident I made a donation to them "

Auckland Council said it receives around 35,000 requests to its animal management team each year and its primary role is to protect the public from dog-related harm.

Elly Waitoa, Animal Management Manager for the council, said: "We understand response times can sometimes be frustrating for customers. The reality is that we must prioritise high risk complaints, and the high volume of calls mean we cannot attend every situation as quickly as we’d like.

"In this situation, the council received three calls overnight on 12 and 13 September. Two separate service requests were created: one for barking and one for animal welfare concerns. Both were assigned a target response time of within three days."

A council officer in fact attended the property at 9am on the Monday, about a day and a half after the initial calls. They saw the SPCA had already taken the dog and took no further action.

Waito added: "For welfare concerns where an animal is not considered to be at immediate risk, as well as barking complaints, a target response time of within three days is standard. Depending on the circumstances and particularly where there is animal abuse, some matters will also be referred to the SPCA or NZ Police."

The property manager for the house said pets are allowed at the property as part of the rental agreement. They were not aware of any complaints about the current tenants’ dogs.

The council said it received three barking complaints relating to the property on May 5, and complaints about a roaming dog on July 6 and 7.

The barking complaints received in May were closed later that month after the complainants said it had stopped. The September barking complaint remains under investigation.