A lifestyle block farmer who bashed two pigs with a heavy steel bar in a "prolonged and violent attack" in front of an upset teenage boy has been jailed today.

The man accused of spraying oven cleaner into a dog's face has been found guilty by a jury in the Wellington District Court.

A man has been jailed for a year and banned from owning animals for a decade after beating and drowning a dog in an attempt to euthanise it, the SPCA said.

A man sprayed oven cleaner into a dog's face several times while walking in an off-lead area of a park, a jury at Wellington District Court has been told.

Parents of dog-attack victims say they relive the nightmare each time they hear of another child suffering horrific injuries when they are mauled by a dog.

The "right to enjoy owning dogs" has to be protected, even at the cost of 20,000 human victims, writes Brian Rudman.

Condemned to death at the hands of a private extermination company, around 150 of the stray dogs from Sochi's Olympic Park have been saved after the intervention of a Russian billionaire.

Pet owners are paying hundreds of dollars every year for insurance to ward off expensive vet bills.

It is not illegal to kill an animal in New Zealand as long as it is done humanely, which includes bludgeoning bobby calves with hefty objects, Mid Canterbury SPCA inspector John Keeley says.

The death of a young bottlenose dolphin who was cut to the bone by a propeller in the Hauraki Gulf has prompted pleas for boat and jetski operators to slow down around marine mammals.

A Kingston man is "frustrated" police gave the Canterbury woman who took his husky a pre-charge warning.

A New Zealand dairy company is reportedly being investigated by Chilean authorities over allegations it inhumanely slaughtered thousands of calves it couldn't use for milk production.

The picturesque bay at Taiji, 420km south of Tokyo, is the site of the world's largest annual dolphin slaughter.

Canterbury SPCA welfare investigators are run off their feet trying to catch up after a record month for complaints in December.

Shark fin remains on the dinner menu at Auckland's SkyCity casino, at $70 for a small serving, despite assurances to the contrary.

A large number of pilot whales refloated after beaching at Farewell Spit in Golden Bay are in danger once again.

More whales have stranded themselves at the top of the South Island days after nine were put down due to being beached at the same spot.

Eight pilot whales which have restranded themselves at the top of the South Island will be euthanised.

A small pod of pilot whales that beached on Farewell Spit yesterday is back in the water, but they leave behind five pod mates who died overnight.

Time was running out tonight for a group of pilot whales to swim back out to sea on the high tide after becoming stranded at Farewell Spit in Golden Bay this morning.

Tens of thousands of dead bats have fallen from the sky as a "catastrophic" heatwave hits parts of eastern Australia.

Editorial: Shooting sharks does not sound very sensible if the purpose is to make beaches safer for swimming.

A cat caused a stir after being stuck in a central Auckland building shaft for four days.

It was a routine flea treatment, his family thought. But it was nearly a case of kitty-cide for Dexter who had a bad reaction to the product - which was for dogs.