Rogue dogs maul ewes

Fernside farmer Ian Taylor is urging owners of dogs in the South Belt area of Rangiora to ensure they are locked up at night after a recent attack cost him three prime breeding ewes.

Mr Taylor, who leases a 40 hectare block on Townsend Rd, found three of his Romney ewes ripped to pieces the day after he put a mob of 50 ewes into a paddock.

"They'd been ripped apart," he said. "It was awful."

Mr Taylor said the dogs involved must have been large animals because one of the ewes had been dragged 10 metres away from a water trough where it appeared it was first attacked.

"The ewes were heavy. It takes a mighty big dog to do that," he said.

Two days later Mr Taylor saw two "big black labrador-type dogs" heading back to the same paddock. One turned toward him when he yelled , but the dogs ran off.

"They seemed to know where they were heading."

Mr Taylor said Waimakariri District Council animal control officers had been unable to trace the owners of the pair.

He warned local residents he was entitled to shoot dogs worrying his sheep and urged them to keep their dogs secured on their properties at night.

"I want to stress I don't want to kill dogs. I'm a dog lover and lost my old mate, Skye, a few years back when she was stolen," he said.

"I just want an end to the killing."

Six-year-old Skye was virtually stolen from under Mr Taylor's nose in 2009. The little cocker spaniel disappeared after Mr Taylor heard a car stop briefly outside his property in O'Rourke's Rd while he was sweeping leave.