{"id":612373,"date":"2026-09-26T11:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612373\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T11:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:46:13","slug":"llamas-tasked-with-protecting-auckland-sheep-from-roaming-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612373\/","title":{"rendered":"Llamas tasked with protecting Auckland sheep from roaming dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trio of llama bodyguards has been drafted in to protect an Auckland flock after roaming dogs killed 180 sheep in just two nights.<\/p>\n

Auckland council southern region operations manager Viv Young told 1News that around 180 sheep from Puhinui reserve in Wiri, south Auckland were killed by dogs in a “major attack” across two nights last year. <\/p>\n

“We had 12 months of probably no attacks, and then out of the blue we had several attacks,” he explained. <\/p>\n

\"Auckland<\/p>\n

Auckland council farm supervisor Viv Young. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The attacks were a financial hit for the council \u2014 with each lamb priced at around $140 \u2014 and a devastating loss for the community. <\/p>\n

In response, three llamas from Rotorua were introduced to the flock after another council farm reported success using them as guard animals.<\/p>\n

Young said the llamas have worked so far, taking on a protective role in the farm.<\/p>\n

Three llamas from Rotorua were introduced to the flock after another council farm reported success using them as guard animals. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“[If] anyone strange walks in, strange dogs, they just walk straight up. The [llamas] don’t run, whereas sheep will run.<\/p>\n

“The dogs that are coming here, they’re not hungry, they’re just here for the game and the sport.”<\/p>\n

He said Auckland Council was warned about a roaming dog problem when it took over the reserve six years ago.<\/p>\n

Senior animal management officer Rob Peterson said they had patrol teams looking for the dogs after the incident last year.<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/p>\n

Senior animal management officer Rob Peterson. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“We saturated Manurewa and this area [Puhinui] with animal management officers. I think there were up to 8 to 10 teams and we were constantly patrolling looking for roaming dogs – which we found,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Whether we found the ones that were involved in this incident is hard to say.”<\/p>\n

Young described finding the aftermath of attacks as “heartbreaking”.<\/p>\n

“You just have to walk the paddock, you have to euthanise what’s maimed, and then you have to dispose of them.”<\/p>\n

Despite success so far with the llama guards, Young said he was still worried. <\/p>\n

“You turn up in the morning with anxiety, because you think, you know, what are we going to find, because that’s previously how it rolls”<\/p>\n

“The dogs are coming from the streets. If only people would put just their dogs away at night. How hard is it?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trio of llama bodyguards has been drafted in to protect an Auckland flock after roaming dogs killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,51,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-612373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-animals","tag-auckland","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}