A farmer is demanding that a pitbull terrier that attacked 30 of his lambs be destroyed.
Shane Anderson fought the crazed dog off with a broom and a bucket at his Warkworth farm on Thursday.
His paddock is protected by a 1.5m fence that includes barbed wire and electric fencing
but the dog crawled underneath.
Eight of the seven-month-old lambs were injured, and three had to be shot. "It's only because I was there that I didn't lose all 30," said Anderson.
During the struggle, the dog's owner Jillian Taylor, her teenage daughter and a friend tried to call it off. It was eventually returned to Taylor's car.
But Anderson was angry police and Rodney District Council dog control officers allowed it to be taken home.
Council spokesman Lloyd Barton said the dog posed a minimum risk of attacking again because it lived on a fenced property.
He said Anderson and Taylor would be interviewed separately before animal control officers decided the dog's fate.
Anderson wanted it destroyed immediately, but owner Jillian Taylor said it was a 10-year-old family pet.
She described the incident as an "unfortunate accident" and accused Anderson of wanting to make "a big drama" out of it.
"It's not a vicious dog, it's not a vicious attack."
The incident follows a string of pitbull attacks on humans.
A Tauranga man attacked at home by his own dogs in the latest incident remained in a serious condition in Waikato Hospital yesterday.
The 34-year-old man was savaged by the "pitbull-type" animals on Friday.
