Outcry after dogs shot in kiwi refuge

A regional councillor and kiwi conservationist faces possible court action after shooting three pig-hunting dogs and maiming another on his 100ha Coromandel Peninsula property.

Arthur Hinds was reported to police by pig-hunters Graeme Hayward and Jason Macdonald after he shot three of their five dogs and injured another as the animals attacked a wild pig on his property just north of Tairua.

Mr Hinds has since filed a complaint of his own for illegal hunting on his land.

Police have consulted legal advisers and say that if the incident goes to court it could become a test case with ramifications for conservation.

Mr Hayward, a hunter for more than 15 years, said he believed the councillor shot first and failed even to ask questions later, deliberately targeting the dogs, which were registered and branded.

Mr Hinds, an Environment Waikato regional councillor and chairman of the local kiwi care group, says he has banned hunting on his property for 30 years.

His land is part of a kiwi conservation area that covers 3750ha from Tairua to Hot Water Beach including 2850ha of private land and 900ha of Department of Conservation land.

The group has spent $75,000 a year for the past four years on kiwi care and works 6500 hours each year to eradicate stoats, ferrets and other pests. Seven kiwi were recently recorded on Mr Hinds' property and and kiwi numbers doubled in the group's catchment since 2001.

Mr Hinds said the hunters were poaching and had lost control of their dogs when he found the animals chewing a pig to death about 1km inland on his property - something the men dispute.

"I told police if it happens again I don't have a choice. We've put too much into kiwi care here to lose it all now. The only place we've found any kiwi is where dogs were restricted.

"The pig hunters are aware it's a kiwi zone and there were five [hunting dogs] in the middle of it. They will say those dogs were controlled, but they were poaching where they shouldn't have been."

The hunters say there were no signs indicating hunting was banned and they had permission to hunt on neighbouring farmland.

Mr MacDonald said the dogs were a short distance from the boundary fence when they were shot.

Under the Animal Welfare Act, hunters must humanely kill any caught pigs or face a large fine.

Mr MacDonald, who voted for Mr Hinds in recent elections, said: "If he isn't stopped, someone will die up there. Sooner or later there's going to be a death and I hope it doesn't come to that."

Constable Alan Lee of Tairua said he was seeking legal advice on how to proceed in a case that had possibly never been tested in law.

"It's not just a case of a few hunters, its the conservation movement versus the hunting movement and there's going to be ramifications if it goes to court. We're on new ground."