Uncontrolled dogs are savaging livestock in night-time raids on farms in the far north, leaving helpless owners with dead animals and big vet bills.

The dogs have killed and maimed sheep, lambs, cows and chickens at properties in Te Iringa, south of Kaikohe.

John and Lily Coleman’s farm was hit three times and he believed the culprits were unregistered uncontrolled pets allowed to roam, not wild dogs.

“It’s traumatising on the stock and the owners, because the stock can’t defend themselves against that type of dog, and it’s at night,” John Coleman said.

“We’ve had three attacks, and different coloured dogs. It’s the same with the neighbours.”

Council officers have had no luck tracing the dogs, and dogs that have been shot attacking livestock on Coleman’s farm or others locally weren’t microchipped, he said.

“We had 16 adult sheep – we are down to six, we had 22 lambs – we lost half of those. They killed a calf. One … is on three legs and the other recovered.

“And they cleaned out our chooks – eight hens I think it was.”

A group of farmers near Kaikohe have lost many animals to dog attacks at night-time, and one farmer says pig dogs allowed to get loose at night are the main problem.
Photo: 123RF

Going out at night on the farm to try to defend the stock was risky not only because of the dogs themselves, but also the risk of slipping on the wet clay soil, he said.

He had several reasons for believing they were unregistered pets.

“Years ago … my daughter heard this lamb getting crunched up, I went out and all I could see was the eyes, and I fired a shot – what had happened was it was a neighbour’s labrador … nice friendly fella in the day, but at night, a killer.

“So you don’t know what breeds are on the go, but most are pig dog types.”

Recently one of his neighbours had seven sheep “wiped out”, and the other lost three and all his poultry.

“We shot one and the one that ran away was feeding pups. My neighbour who works down the road saw where the dogs came from.”

The dog ranger went to that house to find the dog, but Coleman said the people there turned the ranger away with information he said did not add up.

“The [council officers] came and set some traps here and across the road … but those dogs don’t go into traps, they just go out to kill.

“It’s difficult for all parties, because the only way is to catch them in the act, and if you can’t catch them at night – what do you do?

“If the dog people had more powers – well what’s the use of more powers if you can’t identify the dog that did the damage? You can’t expect people to sit up all night waiting for dogs, it’s a bit of a losing battle – it’s the trauma of it all.”

The vet had been out to his property twice to catch and then either put down or patch up the mauled animals.

“Sheep with bite marks they don’t heal so good and then the blowflies start attacking – it’s not nice. There’ll be $1000 damage.

“Other farmers have suffered … further down the valley they … lost sheep and they got together and they finally got the dogs and they were just pig dogs – unregistered and just gone wild.”

Coleman said there was no easy solution he could see.

“[The neighbours] … are not going to buy any more [sheep] because they’ll be attacked again.

“Another neighbour had to lock his sheep up in the wool shed, and finally he went into pine trees.”