Long before Justice Andrew Becroft wondered how a dispute over walking dogs at an Auckland park ended up in the High Court, Ella Kumar was already trading Facebook jabs with Maungakiekie MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

Kumar was heading the local board in the central Auckland suburb of Hillsborough and nearabouts when, last year, the members voted 4-2 in favour of a decision that riled up dog lovers.

You could no longer walk your dog without a leash in the small dog bowl at the popular Monte Cecilia Park, the Puketapapa Local Board decided, because "all users" needed priority. Kumar no longer heads the board, having returned as deputy chairperson in last year's elections.

It all began with a seemingly innocuous Facebook post. "What's your view on this?" Labour's Radhakrishnan asked on the social networking site on May 12, 2025. The dog parent parliamentarian wasn't going to take it lying down.

"I have dogs & know they need spaces where they can run & I’m with the 90% of submitters who want to keep the off-leash areas…If [safety] is the concern, they could get stricter on enforcement of safety rules."

Ella Kumar arrived in the comments quickly. Before we get into that standoff, it helps to understand why Justice Becroft of the Auckland High Court was bewildered to see a courtroom full of dog lovers last month.

The court case

On February 26, 2026, the High Court heard an application by the Dog Lovers of Monte Cecilia Incorporated Society for a judicial review of the board's decision, where Justice Becroft pointed to the need for balancing emotions with fiscal prudence.

"I don’t want to diminish anyone’s emotional attachment to the area or their dogs," he noted, "but you’d think for what is a reasonably small area…that there might be a way of resolving it short of both sides throwing…the kitchen sink at the decision-making?"

He was quite frank. "There is vast resource being sunk into this by the council, I just wonder if there isn’t another way of resolving this short of an all out ... law attack on a small six-member elected board?"

Radhakrishnan vs Kumar

Back to Facebook. Last year, when Kumar decided she must respond to Radhakrishnan, she wasn't pleased about the parliamentarian's overreach.

"You are more than welcome to contact me as you are a MP outside Puketapapa area raising this without discussing with local board members," she observed.

Kumar defended the board's hours of "careful deliberation", said they weighed "all users", and promised staff were "urgently" looking at a fenced dog area elsewhere in Monte Cecilia. Thank you, but no thank you.

Radhakrishnan’s reply was firm but tidy. "Monte Cecilia is in the Maungakiekie electorate and as you know, I live there and am an MP based there," she reminded Kumar.

As a dog owner, she said she had every reason to ask about alternatives, including "better enforcement of powers the Council has under the Dog Control Act". "Why wasn’t that the solution?"

The thread only got more crowded. Another board member chimed in to say he had pushed for "better signage that clearly outlines the off-leash area and more compliance officers", pointing to the extra wardens funded for West Auckland beaches.

"Unfortunately we were voted down 4-2," he said, adding that council staff wanted to wait for the park’s master plan refresh before scouting other dog spaces.

Then came the public peanut gallery. One user wrote, "Find it mind boggling that the chairman of the local board doesn't know that Puketapapa is in the Maungakiekie electorate." Radhakrishnan answered with a crisp "💯", the Facebook equivalent of a high-five for the commenter.

The dog fight

Last month at the High Court, by the time Justice Becroft leaned forward to ask why both sides were "throwing the kitchen sink" at a dog dispute, Kumar had already been named twice in front of a gallery full of dog lovers.

He called the current line between on-leash and off-leash "a bit mickey mouse". That is to say nobody can actually see it. His hint was obvious: paint some lines, put up poles, avoid another day in court. Taxpayers were now paying for a debate about cones.

The judge told both sides to go away and try to find a peace deal, maybe involving better signs, maybe a temporary fence. The Dog Lovers of Monte Cecilia Incorporated Society says it promptly submitted a proposal for negotiations.

"They were pretty much the same ideas we have been proposing. The problem is the local board doesn't seem to be interested in having a reasonable conversation," the group's Jonathan Sweeney told Awaaz.

The dog lovers' society has nearly 700 registered members. Their lawyer is George Barton, a dog owner, who agreed to take on the case pro bono. Sweeney says so many people volunteering their time to resolve the issue speaks to how much the petitioners are emotionally invested in the case.

The Puketapapa Local Board has told the High Court it'll be happy to abide by the court decision on the judicial review.

"That's the problem. They aren't even interested in talking to us," says Sweeney.