Photo: SUPPLIED
The hunt is on in Rotorua for a statue of a beloved stray dog which has been cut from its base and stolen.
The dog named Harawene roamed an area beside Te Ngae Road which is part of State Highway 3.
Harawene was loved by locals and visitors to Rotorua. Photo: SUPPLIED
Although she was timid and did not allow anyone to approach her, she was fed daily by locals, and when she died in 2008, a statue was put up in her memory.
Fiona Cairns, who led the fundraising committee to build the statue, told Midday Report someone must have stolen the statue expecting to make a quick buck.
The hollow bronze statue of Harawene. Photo: SUPPLIED
"But sadly, they'll be disappointed."
It was a hollow bronze statue, she said.
"The little bit that they would get for scrap metal is hardly worth all the anguish they seem to have caused a lot of locals, [who] are coming out of the woodwork at the moment as they did when she went missing," Cairns said.
"There's a lot of very upset and angry people around.
"We just can't believe that somebody would even take it like that."
While fundraising, Cairns said there were responses from people from the UK, US, Canada and Ireland who had heard of Harawene from Rotorua.
She spoke of the pleasure that the statue gave everyone.
"One woman, her little boy, waved to the statue every time he went past. She remembered the dog when it was alive, as I do. I've just had a lot of people coming forward in disbelief that this has happened," Cairns said.
Police said they had not received any reports of the statue being stolen.
