On the rolling hills of Glenburn Station in rural Wairarapa, 43 lambs lay dead, another four were so badly injured they had to be euthanised, and one was missing.<\/p>\n
By Emily Ireland of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Station manager Lachie McFadzean said it was a scene no farmer wanted to see in their lifetime and a stark reminder of the importance of responsible dog ownership in the rural community.<\/p>\n
He recalled vividly the carnage two wandering dogs had unleashed on his flock in June.<\/p>\n
The dogs were from a neighbouring property and had been missing for about three days by the time they were spotted and shot on site at Glenburn, McFadzean said.<\/p>\n
“You could see by the wounds it had been going on for a few days<\/p>\n
“Lambs were chased into gullies and killed, drowned in the mud.<\/p>\n
“We heard the barking and one of the shepherds had a rifle and put the dogs down on the spot and then worked out whose they were.<\/p>\n
“We did what we could with the light from our quads.<\/p>\n
“The annoying part is that the owner knew the dogs were missing and afterwards he said to me he did hear them barking.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Carterton District Council took the dog owner to court to prosecute him under the Dog Control Act 1996.<\/p>\n
A report to council said the defendant was found “guilty on all charges”.<\/p>\n
He was ordered to pay Glenburn Station $5000, in recognition of financial losses associated with the incident, including insurance-related costs.<\/p>\n
Additional compensation of $2000 was also awarded for emotional harm arising from the offending.<\/p>\n
The council said the incident involved \u201csignificant livestock losses, and represents one of the more serious dog control enforcement matters progressed by council in recent years\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil has now received the court’s decision and supporting documentation and is progressing the next stage of the enforcement process.<\/p>\n
“This includes consideration of dog ownership disqualification provisions available under the Dog Control Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil officers are seeking the maximum statutory disqualification period in light of the seriousness of the offending.”<\/p>\n
McFadzean said the survivors of the 120-lamb flock were no longer fit for \u201csale to store\u201d after the incident so they would be fattened at Glenburn and would likely have a significantly downgraded value as an end product.<\/p>\n
The insurance payout only applied to the lambs that had died and were priced at the present-day market value which was $200 each, not their potential value.<\/p>\n
His message to rural dog owners was simple.<\/p>\n
“If you lose your dogs, go looking for them.<\/p>\n
“If you can’t find them, alert your neighbours.<\/p>\n
“If you can\u2019t look after them, don’t have them.”<\/p>\n
Carterton District Council\u2019s planning and regulatory services manager Solitaire Robertson said early reporting of roaming dogs gave councils the best chance of preventing serious incidents before they happened.<\/p>\n
“It allows us to understand what’s happening, work with owners, provide education and offer support where required.<\/p>\n
“We understand there’s a natural preference not to give us a call, but that can mean a pattern of roaming behaviour goes unnoticed and those early opportunities for intervention are missed.<\/p>\n
“A quick and confidential report today could help avoid a much more serious situation tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the rolling hills of Glenburn Station in rural Wairarapa, 43 lambs lay dead, another four were so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,273,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-616366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-animals","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616366","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=616366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}