SPCA staff offered counselling after dog massacre

Rowan Hargreaves (right), with friend Richard Hawkings, at his rural property in Wellsford. Photo / Greg Bowker

SPCA staff who inspected bloody carcasses of 33 dogs after they were slaughtered in Northland earlier this week have been offered counselling.

The SPCA said it was still deciding what charges it would lay against two men who went onto Russell Hargreaves' property near Wellsford north of Auckland and shot dead 33 of his 39 dogs.

SPCA executive director Bob Kerridge said what staff saw was a turn-around of what they stood for and they were very emotional.

"Abuse to animals is totally contrary to how they feel," Mr Kerridge said today.

One of the men who shot the dogs ran a store advertising pet care.

Russell Mendoza and another man used a .22 calibre rifle and shotgun to shoot the dogs on Monday night, blaming one or more of them for the mauling death of Mr Mendoza's fox terrier. The slaughter included 23 pups and 10 adult dogs.

Mr Hargreaves described the dogs as his family and said he was in shock.

Mr Mendoza refused to speak about the killings yesterday, but a friend said he was preparing a statement with his lawyer.

Mr Mendoza and his wife run Home & Garden Wellsford, which advertised pet care, but Mr Hargreaves said there was no logic to that if he was an animal lover.

SPCA investigator Sascha Keltie said the death scene was "not unlike a massacre".

She said bullet entry and exit wounds on some of the dogs indicated they had not died instantly, and blood trails were consistent with an injured dog moving.

Six adult dog bodies were piled on top of one another as if they had been trying to protect themselves.

Mr Kerridge said 10 dog bodies had been taken to the SPCA for investigation and until reports on their deaths was completed, charges would not be laid.

He also said Mr Mendoza would be interviewed as part of the inquiry.

Mr Kerridge said the animals had been well looked after and neither the police, the SPCA nor the Rodney District Council had received any complaints about Mr Hargreaves' dogs.

"They were very, very healthy, very well cared for animals."

- NZPA, AP