Carl Hoffmann, 85, gets up five times a night to check on his beloved animals after one of his sheep was killed in a dog attack. Photo / Maryana Garcia
Brutal night-time attacks by dogs have left six sheep dead in Tikitere, Rotorua.
One resident fears the dogs responsible, having had a taste of blood, could turn on children or the elderly. Another is now getting up five times a night to check on his beloved animals.
Self-described “animal nutter” Carl Hoffmann loved his two sheep and one ram - all called “Sheepy” - as well as his two pigs, eight cats and 10-year-old labrador-corgi cross Milo.
“I go out and talk to my sheep every day,” Hoffmann said.
“I call for them and they come running for their food.”
One day last week, when the 84-year-old called, only two sheep came to him. One was bleeding.
“I wandered around my little property and I saw my other sheep lying there. She’d had her whole throat taken out.”
She died. The other and his ram were injured but survived.
It was not the first time Hoffmann’s animals had been victims of an attack. Hoffmann said his two pigs were mauled last month and only the timely intervention of his neighbour saved them.
“There were two dogs. He scared them off with the lights of his car.”
Hoffmann said one pig almost lost an ear in that attack.
“I think the world of my animals. It’s sickening that this could happen. Something must be done about it.”
Hoffmann said he had been up five times a night checking on his animals since the attack.
“I just wanted to live quietly with my animals. So I do worry about them.”
Hoffmann, who suffers from hearing loss, said if only he had heard his sheep’s attackers, he would have run outside to fight them off.
Having missed his chance to confront the perpetrators, Hoffmann has settled for “spreading the word until something is done”.
“I just want to help, so that others don’t have to go through the same thing.”
Hoffmann said he found out via social media that other neighbours had suffered from the attacks of two dogs over the last few weeks.
“Every few days something comes up and somebody else has had the same thing happen to them.”
One was Tikitere resident Lynda Vercoe, who woke at 12.30am a few nights ago to the sound of snarling.
“I had headphones on but it was loud enough for me to hear,” Vercoe told the Rotorua Daily Post.
“I heard what sounded like scampering. Our own dog was already in the house.”
Vercoe said the snarling sounded like it was coming from an angry dog.
“That worried me straight away. I got up and shined a torch outside but I couldn’t see much really.”
Vercoe said she woke her husband and told him there was a dog outside and it was probably having a go at the sheep.
“He wanted to go outside but I was scared it would attack him.”
He drove to the front paddock where the couple kept their 12 sheep.
“He couldn’t see but he could hear barking. At that stage, we thought it was just one dog.”
But when he shone a light on one patchy, tan and white dog, it didn’t bark.
“It was moving through bush and scrub on the other side of the stream. The other dog was still barking. We didn’t see the other dog at all but we heard it.”
Vercoe said some of the sheep had run into the stream on their property to escape the attackers.
Vercoe said five sheep were lost as a result of the attack.
One was immediately found dead. One injured sheep was so badly mauled it had to be put down and two more later died from their injuries. A fifth, older, sheep was uninjured but also died, Vercoe believed, as a result of the attack.
When they told neighbours what had happened, they found one’s pig had been attacked and another had seen dogs wandering about.
“They described the dogs as American pitbulls.”
Vercoe said it was clear that “menacing dogs” were in the area but the community had not been able to identify them or who might own them.
“We’re worried that the dogs will return and have a second go. At night-time now we’re on the alert. I’m not sleeping the same way.
In her view: “They’ve had a taste of blood. They may turn on humans... If the dogs are hungry and starving they just might attack people.”
Vercoe was concerned her 5-year-old grand-daughter or her elderly father could be attacked next.
“We hope the dogs can be located, their owners identified and they can be stopped.”
However, Hoffmann said the most important thing he had learned from the attack was the kindness of the people around him.
“I’ve never known such a great community of people that care,” Hoffmann said.
Hoffmann said one of his neighbours even helped him to bury his dead sheep.
Federated Farmers Rotorua-Taupō president Colin Guyton said sheep were an “easy target” for dogs.
He said they could get into a “pack mentality” and “kill for the sake of killing”.
“They don’t just kill one sheep... they’ll kill a whole lot of animals for no real reason.”
Guyton said when he was younger, dog attacks on sheep used to be a “common problem”.
“We’re predominantly dairy now so dog attacks [are] not so common.
Guyton encouraged those affected to report any incidents to the council or the police.
Rotorua Lakes Council Community Wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi said the council had received five complaints in the last week from the Brunswick area.
Pewhairangi said the reports ranged from roaming dogs to attacks on livestock.
“At this point, the responsible dog or dogs have not been identified,” Pewhairangi said.
“Staff continue to work within affected stock-owners and have gathered any relevant information from residents in an attempt to identify the dogs. The investigation is ongoing.”
- Additional reporting Megan Wilson