Truck sought after stag shooting

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 2

Truck sought after stag shooting

By

ROBYN BRISTOW

A stag was shot and killed on a property at Okuku, north of Christchurch, on Saturday evening only days after a stag was killed and five others injured by rifle fire on a property at nearby Loburn. Twelve stags are still missing from the Loburn property. They disappeared between 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday and 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday of last week.

Detective Paul Woods of the Rangiora police said the police were looking for a vehicle after the latest incident, on a Browns Road, Okuku, property. The stag was shot from Birch Hill Road, the main Lobufn-to-Ashley Gorge road, while the farmer, Mr Rodney Hamilton was working in his deer yards 500 m away. Mr Hamilton heard a shot at

about 5.45 p.m. and said the offenders were dragging the dead and gutted one-year-old stag under a fence after cutting the wires. He chased a vehicle but was unable to stop it. Detective Woods said the vehicle the owner saw was a light green utility with two spotlights mounted on a steel frame on the back of the cab. It had

strips of chrome or paint on the side. Detective Woods said he believed the deer at Carrs Road, Loburn, may have been shot after hunters returned from the nearby forestry and had sat around having a beer. Two empty cans were found near a fence. There was no evidence to show how the 12 missing stags left the paddock, he said.