Man at centre of dog massacre 'overawed' by attention

The man at the centre of the Wellsford dog massacre has only just spoken out because he was "overawed by all the attention".

Russell Mendoza's lawyer Joe Koppens said his client had purposely "kept his head down" until now. In a statement issued over the weekend Mr Koppens distanced his client from the blame, saying he only pulled the trigger once in the shooting of 33 dogs at Rowan Hargreaves' property a week ago.

It said Mr Hargreaves requested, verbally and in writing, that Mr Mendoza destroy the dogs after conceding they were responsible for the fatal mauling of Mr Mendoza's fox terrier.

The statement said: "The dogs were destroyed by the holder of a firearms licence. Mr Hawkings, an associate of Mr Hargreaves, handed a gun to Mr Mendoza. He used this to shoot a dog at point blank range under the supervision of the licence holder. The dog died instantly."

Mr Hargreaves could not be reached for comment yesterday, but previously said he signed a note agreeing to the shooting "under enormous pressure". He held back tears describing the sounds of the dogs being shot.

SPCA executive director Bob Kerridge said the statement didn't alter the investigation into whether Mr Mendoza or companion Tony "Tussock" Campbell should face animal cruelty charges. He hoped this would be finalised by the end of the week.

He said: "I guess it's normal that statements will be made along the line and that really doesn't alter the course we're taking, we're investigating to see if we can get as close to the truth as possible."

It is alleged Mr Mendoza and Mr Campbell entered Mr Hargreaves' Underwood property and shot 23 puppies and 10 dogs in what police called a "bloody, rifle-killing frenzy".

Last week SPCA investigators broke down as they described the horrific scenes they saw on the 5ha block.

Richard Hawkings yesterday agreed with the statement and expressed his frustration at Mr Mendoza being blamed.

He had fired the gun once, but it jammed, and Mr Campbell did the rest of the killing, he said.

"Mendoza is not the target here it's the other guy. Mendoza was crying through the whole ordeal. He had buried his dog half an hour ago."

Four puppies hiding under their mother in a van and two dogs out of sight of the gunman survived the shooting. They were taken to Mr Hargreaves' workshop in Wellsford but one later died.

Senior Constable Barry Rose said he found 66 rifle cartridges and seven shotgun shells on the property and dozens more were among the dead dogs, which were "piled on top of one another".