DOG SAVES MAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22976, 2 March 1938, Page 15

DOG SAVES MAN

FIGHT WITH WILD BOAR LIFE GIVEN FOR MASTER TUSK WOUNDS PROVE FATAL [by TELEGRAPH—OiyN correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday In the rough country at the back of Whangamomona a dog gave her life in a desperate fight to save her master from the tusks of a maddened wild boar. Mr. K. Meuli, of New Plymouth, lay helpless on the ground with a boar charging him, hut his bull mastiff dog rushed in between and took the full force of the charge. Mr. Meuli and a companion were concluding a week's pig hunting in the Whangamomona district with a day out for meat to bring back to New Plymouth. The first pig they found was a pure white boar with tusks as sharp and strong as daggers. The dogs bailed up the animal in a creek that had steep sides loft. high. To shoot the pig Mr. Meuli caught hold of a branch and leaned well out over the bank. As he fired the branch broke and he crashed headlong into the creek bed. Toss, the dog, rushed in between the pig and her master as the animal began to charge at Mr, Meuli as he lay winded and blinded in the creek. He wiped his eyes clear to see the dog meet the boar head-on and fight like a tiger to stop the infuriated animal. Brave as the dog was, it was too much to expect her to fight the boar alone, and she .was ripped twice in the throat by the sharp tusks. That proved her death, but she still fought on with her dying breaths. Other dogs piled in from behind and then the whole struggling mass swept over Mr. Meuli. Either a tusk or a hoof struck him on the side of the head, laying open an ear, and down into the mud he went again, his senses reeling. Bv the time Mr. Meuli picked himself up the dogs had full command of the situation. He quickly knifed the pig, which had h corl captured only at the cost of the valiant dog. Toss had died hanging on to the pig's ear and she still hung there after she died. Toss was buried on the scene of her great fight and the camp was very silent that night. Toss was well known by the children in Kawaroa Park, New Plymouth, where she ,was a popular favourite and playmate.