On Sunday, 29 April 2007, George was playing with a group of five children, aged between three and twelve years of age, in the small
Taranaki town of
Manaia. As they returned home from a local shop, they were set upon by a pair of pit bulls. George intervened between the two other dogs and the children. Richard Rosewarne, who was one of the five children, said of the attack, "George tried to protect us by barking and rushing at them, but they started to bite him - one on the head and the other on the back."