LAMBS KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 252, 25 October 1933, Page 3

LAMBS KILLED.

WORRIED BY DOGS. RAIDS ON ONE TREE HILL. OVER 30 DEATHS RESUXT. Two small black dogs caused havoc among a flock of about 500 lambs in the One Tree Hill Domain early yesterday J morning, when 20 lambs were bitten and j 14 of them, including a ewe, were found dead. Others were so badly mauled that they had to be killed. Later in the day the owner of the sheep, Mr. S. Robinson, of 32, Claude Road, Epsom, shot one of the dogs. He estimates the value of the dead sheep at over £40. For some time past the sheep grazing on the slopes of One Tree Hill have been periodically worried and the last two raids have resulted in over 30 deaths. Two four-month-old lambs which .were severely injured have been treated by Mr. F. Baekhurst, caretaker of the Domain, and, although limping badly, they are expected to recover. Mr. Robinson said that he learned on Saturday morning that two black dogs had been worrying his flock of sheep, but by the time he reached the Domain, the dogs had gone. After mustering the flock, he found that 10 lambs and one ewe had been bitten. Seven lambs and the ewe were dead and six others which were badly hurt had to be killed.

Since Sunday Mr. Robinson has Tiecn up every morning about four o'clock waiting 1 with his gun for the dogs to return. . They arrived again to attack the sheep yesterday morning, but it was plain they had been worrying the sheep before Air. Robinson got there, for the sheep were exhausted. Several were dead and others had been badly bitten. About an hour after his discovery, Mr. Robinson came upon two black dogs chasing about 100 ewes and lambs near the top of One Tree Hill. He got near enough to shoot one of the dogs, but the other escaped before he could take aim again. Mr. Robinson said that dogs were the cause of the death of about 00 of his lambs every year. During his 42 years in the district he had shot all kinds of dogs, but always others arrived to worry the sheep. In two nights alone last year he had lost 39 lambs.