SILENT KILLERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22022, 3 August 1933, Page 8

SILENT KILLERS

ALSATIANS IN SHEEP FLOCK A TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, August .2. Satisfying the killer instinct two Alsatian dogs, one of either sex, went silently and savagely through a mob of nearly 600 ewes in South Hagley Park this morning, leaving a trail of about 25 dead sheep and half as many badly worried. The dogs, one of huge size, were eventually cornered and shot. They were without collars. The ewes were halfbreds and in lamb, and were the property of Mr E. Wightman, of Methven. The destruction seemed to have been done in about an hour. The ewes were placed in the park on Monday ready for the sale at Addington yards to-day. At 7 a.m. to-day Mr J. Templeton, groundsman at Hagley Park cricket ground, saw two Alsatians in the park near the hockey ground and the sheep. He chased the dogs on to the roadway. Mr Alex Gray, the groundsman for Christ’s College, said he saw two sheep lying dead on the polo ground at 7.10 a.m. and then he noticed two Alsatians coming into the park near the hockey ground. He rode his bicycle out on to Riccarton avenue, intending to follow, but lost sight of the dogs, which had entered in among the mob of ewes. Mr Gray went back to the polo ground and posted three ,of his men to watch. He then met the owner of the sheep. The police were communicated with by telephone but said that' the matter was one for Pyne, Gould, Guinness, Ltd. In the meantime a message was sent to the Addington yards with a request for a man with a gun. No one came. Eventually at about 7.35 a.m. Mr Gray, disgusted with the lack of help, went to the yards himself and Mr Fred Grieve, a yardsman, went into the park with a gun. As Mr Gray was going to the yards he met a man on horseback with two sheepdogs following. Mr Gray asked him to keep on the outskirts of the mob so as not to frighten the dogs away. Subsequently the Alsatians left the sheep and started off toward Lincoln road. The horseman set his two sheepdogs on to one of the Alsatians, and thus held both of them in the park. Then several men arrived. A circle was formed round the Alsatians, and about 8 a.m. Mr Grieve shot the slaty grey bitch. The big brown dog immediately took up a defiant stand near its mate and showed its fangs at Mr Grieve as he. took aim with the second barrel. The snouts of both Alsatians bore evidence of their ferocious killing. Mr C. Ede. overseer for Pyne, Gould, Guinness, Ltd., went round and killed several sheep that had been worried, some of them grievously. The sheep that have been worried usually hide, and Mr Ede had to seek them out. In a drain about eight feet deep he found half a dozen sheep which had been driven there by the Alsatians. Those sheep were not injured, but had to be helped back on to the pasture land again. Though two sheep were disembowelled on Monday night in exactly the same way as to-day, Mr Ede said that it was the first real trouble in the park for 12 months. Several years ago he had found 40 or 50 sheep injured and wandering about, and on one occasion three sheep were found with their eyes removed. That action he ascribed to some fiend. The biggest menace in the park was the sheepdog and the fox terrier. The sheepdog herded the sheep and made it easy for the terrier to do the worrying. Mr Alexander Gray has shot a score of dogs caught worrying sheep in the park, but the gun which was provided for him was taken away. In view of the killing to-day it seems that he should be ready with a gun at any time to deal with dogs. Someone actually made the suggestion to-day while the Alsatians were in the park that a visit should be made to Fendalton to get a gun. A man who saw the Alsatians among the sheep said that, unlike most other breeds, the dogs did not bark. They worked silently and ferociously in the mob as it moved round the park.