A Waverley slaughterman who hit a Jack Russell terrier with a fence batten in self-defence has had a charge of wilfully mistreating an animal dropped.
Phillip Ronald Reweti, also known as Brutus, 52, denied the charge when he appeared before Judge Laurie Hilton in the Whanganui District Court on Monday.
The court heard that on March 5, Reweti heard dogs barking at a neighbour's property and approached the property with a 1.2m fence batten in his hand.
He attempted to get a dog inside to stop it barking, but a second dog, a Jack Russell owned by another neighbour's daughter, lunged at Reweti.
He struck it with the batten and again tried to get the first dog inside, but the jack russell made for him a second time and he hit it again, with greater force, in the head and neck. The dog ran away, jumped a fence to a neighbouring property and died from its injuries shortly after.