The Tauranga City Council has seized two dogs after they attacked a well-known community horse on Pāpāmoa Beach earlier this week, in an assault so prolonged that rider Tai Nelson was forced to take his stricken animal into the sea in an attempt to fend the dogs off.
Hero, a 14-year-old gelding used for children’s rides around the Bay of Plenty, suffered at least eight puncture and tear wounds and has needed stitches, antibiotics and a drain. The vet has told the family that the horse will need to be confined for at least a month and that the full extent of nerve damage in one leg is still unknown. Veterinary bills are already close to $2,000, and a Givealittle page set up by friends has raised more than $2,000 in a single day.
The attack happened on the stretch of beach between Harrison’s Cut and the Memorial Carpark. Nelson was riding with a friend when, according to family accounts shared with 1News, two off-leash dogs ran at the horses and one bit Hero on the back of a hind leg as they passed. Nelson sent his friend toward the safety of the dunes and tried to lead the dogs away from her, eventually steering Hero into the surf in the hope that deeper water would slow the pursuit. Instead, horse and rider went under.
“The horse was under the water, and the dogs carried on,” Aimee Nelson, the rider’s wife, told the New Zealand Herald. “One dog was on the horse’s throat in the water.”
Speaking to 1News, Aimee said the ordeal had nearly cost her husband and Hero their lives. “My husband and the horse went under the water,” she said. “With two dogs and a horse in fight-or-flight mode, it’s a miracle they’re both alive.”
The Nelsons say the dogs’ owners did not step in to intervene, and members of the public eventually helped pull the animals away. Tauranga City Council animal control officers attended the scene and seized both dogs, which are now being held while the council investigates whether to prosecute under the Dog Control Act 1996.
In a statement to 1News, the council said owners are required to keep their dogs under control at all times. “Dogs must be controlled at all times, and owners could be held criminally responsible for their actions,” a council spokesperson said. The council has asked anyone with information about the incident or the owners to ring its animal services team on (07) 577 7000.
The Nelsons have asked the council to pursue a prosecution and to have the two dogs euthanised, arguing that animals capable of pinning a horse in shallow water and biting at its throat pose an unacceptable risk to children, walkers and other riders who share the beach.
Hero is something of a fixture in Bay of Plenty horse circles. Tai Nelson, a lifelong horse handler from Rotorua, has used the gelding for years to give rides to local children, and the horse’s name appears in tributes left on the family’s fundraising page from people who say their kids first learned to sit in a saddle on his back. The community response has been quick. Within a day of the attack the Givealittle page had already cleared its initial $2,000 goal, with donors leaving messages of support and offers to help with feed, transport and stable care during Hero’s recovery.
The case has reignited a long running debate about how dog access on Tauranga’s beaches is managed. Dogs are already banned year round on the most popular stretch of Mount Maunganui’s main beach between Mauao and Moturiki Island, and at Pilot Bay between Mauao and Salisbury Avenue. Beyond those zones, owners are allowed to walk dogs off-lead provided the animals remain under control, a rule that several local advocates say is too easily flouted. Animal control infringement notices issued by Tauranga City Council climbed from 85 in 2018-19 to 128 in 2020-21, and individual incidents of uncontrolled dogs hurting people, pets and stock have continued to surface across the wider region.
Pāpāmoa Beach is one of the few stretches in the area still popular with horse riders, who say they are increasingly nervous about sharing the dunes and tide line with off-leash dogs. The Hero attack sits alongside earlier reports of bites on walkers and joggers, and an October 2021 incident in which a Mount Maunganui woman was knocked down by an uncontrolled dog at the Mount and suffered a fractured pelvis and a badly broken wrist. The maximum penalty for owning a dog that attacks a person or animal under the Dog Control Act is a $3,000 fine, although the most serious cases can also lead to mandatory destruction of the animal.
For now, the focus for the Nelsons is keeping Hero comfortable while his wounds close and the nerve damage in his hind leg becomes clearer. The vet has warned that recovery is likely to take several months, and the family says the horse may not be fit to carry riders for the rest of the year. Aimee Nelson told 1News the response from neighbours and strangers had been the one bright spot in an awful week, with people they have never met offering hay, paddock space and time to help look after the horse while he heals.
Have you encountered uncontrolled dogs on a Bay of Plenty beach, and do you think Tauranga City Council should tighten the rules for off-lead access? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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