The mauling of a month-old pet lamb in Brighton yesterday has prompted its owner to warn others in the area that a lamb had been killed by a dog on the loose.
Sue Skilbeck said she woke about 12.45am and looked out the window to see the lamb she had been caring for for a week dead on the ground, its stomach clearly mauled by a dog.
She had rescued the triplet from a gully on her Scroggs Hill Rd farmlet a week earlier.
It was so weak she had to feed it with a meat-baster for a start, until it learned to suck.
She had put a collar on it and made a run for it outside her house and each night put it in a hut.
Sadly, Monday was the first night she thought it was strong and happy enough to stay outside for the night, she said.
It was distressing not only to see a pet mauled like that, but that a dog was wandering around the area killing stock, and she wanted others in the rural area to be aware.
She had reported the incident to animal control.
Dunedin City Council senior animal control officer Jim Pryde said there had been no other reports of a dog attacking stock in the Brighton area, but it was important other stock owners were aware a lamb had been killed.
He asked anyone with information on the whereabouts of the dog or its owners to contact the council.
