Dog terror prompts residents to carry guns

Roaming dogs have some Ngunguru residents so frightened they are carrying guns around their properties.
The neighbours' reaction comes after a reign of terror by one or more dogs believed to live at a Tongatu Rd property.
A dog attacked an alpaca and a 30-year-old Welsh mountain pony on a fenced property in that road last week.
There have been several other incidents involving attacks in the Waihoi Creek and Tongatu Rd area in the past three years.
An alpaca on Brian and Christine Angliss's Waihoi peninsula property was left with neck and leg wounds in the latest attack.
The Welsh pony was the one Ms Angliss had used the week before to give rides to children at the Ngunguru Fair and Regatta to raise money for the local school.
The Anglisses believe the culprit came from a neighbouring property.
On the morning of the attack neighbours heard "screaming" noises, similar to the sound a distressed alpaca makes, then heard someone calling and whistling a dog.
In March last year another of the Anglisses' alpacas had to be shot after being mauled by a dog.
At least one dog has burrowed under the Anglisses' 2m high fence to get to their animals in the past, Mr Angliss said.
A few months ago a brown dog crossed the foreshore on to the property and attacked Mr Angliss' collie in front of him and a visitor.
Mr Angliss also suspects the neighbour's dog had ripped a rare Cape Barren goose "to shreds". He did not seen the attack but saw the dog with fresh blood around its mouth and found the dead bird shortly afterwards.
He said he had reported the incidents to Environment Northland but had not followed his complaint up with a statement.
Dog rangers had visited the dog owner's property on more than one occasion but with no proof of the attacks had no grounds to remove the dog, Mr Angliss said.
He said he now had statements from another neighbour and his wife whose dogs had been attacked by a dog rushing at them from the Tongatu Rd address.
Environmental Northland manager Keith Thompson said positive identification or eye-witness accounts were needed before a dog could be removed from a property. He was hopeful of receiving information that would help resolve the situation at Tongatu Rd.
"Any information, whether it's witness statements or phone conversation, anything people can tell us about dangerous or problem dogs, will be treated absolutely confidentially," Mr Thompson said.
Meanwhile, there could be more roaming dogs in the vicinity, resident Wade Doak said.
Dogs have frightened residents by coming on to their properties and acting menacing, he said.
At least one man now keeps a gun with him even when walking around his own property.
"We live in a kiwi zone. My neighbour was accosted recently by two dogs. One had a collar.
"He fired a gun over their heads. They took off over a mangrove river. Now he takes a gun when he hangs washing on the line. An old, experienced farmer, he is scared of those dogs," Mr Doak said.
The latest attack has rekindled fears for the local kiwi population in the kiwi conservation zone.
As well as their potential to decimate the kiwi population, dangerous dogs on the loose posed a threat to landowners patrolling trap lines and bait stations, Mr Doak said .
"Should we have to go armed?" he asked.
The law permits property owners to shoot unknown dogs they saw "running with stock". Stock includes poultry, wildlife and protected species such as kiwi.