Uncontrolled dogs on rampage in remote area

A wild dog captured by the trail camera set up by Tom McClunie on his Ngamatapouri Station property.

A pack of uncontrolled dogs is moving through remote Whanganui backcountry and killing everything they come across, Tom McClunie says.

He owns Riminui Station and a hunting block far up the Waitotara Valley, and lives in Hamilton. The dogs are coming from a Watershed Rd property where they are uncontained and uncontrolled.

"My farm operator isn't prepared to have his wife ride her horse out there, and I won't let my grandchildren ride their bikes there until this is resolved."

The dogs have been described as beardies or huntaways in appearance.

The dog problem has existed for about five years, and started affecting his property about three years ago. The first he heard about it was when a possum hunter watched four dogs chase a deer round and round, then kill it.

He's seen the dogs himself once, and hunting friends have seen them twice. On one occasion a dog "fronted" a man and "bailed up to him".

More often people on his property have heard dogs far up in the bush, bailing up pigs, deer or goats. All the goats on his property have been killed, he said, and the deer have fled.

Graham Palamountain hunts in the area. He has found maimed but uneaten animals in creeks, and said neighbouring cattle and sheep have been killed as well.

Department of Conservation Whanganui District senior partnerships ranger Jasmine Hessell has heard the dogs may have entered nearby Jean D'Arcy Memorial Conservation Area and Powataunga Reserve. Unpermitted dogs are not allowed there, and she said they can kill kiwi.

Mr McClunie has made numerous complaints about the dogs, over some time. He said Whanganui District Council's animal control had taken away 17 dogs and speyed bitches.

He believes there are still 30 or 40 on the property and said more needs to be done and the council is working on it.

The property belongs to Dean Palmer, who lives in Wellington, he said. It's a woman living in the dilapidated house there who owns the dogs.