NUISANCE DOGS KILL SHEEP

Locals believe that two Staffordshire bull terrier dogs that regularly roam the area are responsible for the attacks.

Mandurama resident, Deirdre Molloy, said that she has lost three sheep out of her flock of ten.

“There have been a couple of attacks. One sheep was killed 2-3 days prior to the attack on Friday,” she said.

“The dogs killed the first one and came back again.”

Ms Molloy said she tried to contact the council ranger but he was not working over the weekend so she contracted the Mandurama police.

“The police spoke to the dog owners and they said they had taken the dogs to Blayney,” she said.

Ms Molloy that it wasn’t the first time she has lost sheep from dog attacks.

“In one attack I lost 36 sheep at one time,” she said. "They were ewes on their first lamb if I was to replace them it would be over $100 per ewe."

Ms Molloy said that many residents were concerned for their own safety after the recent attacks.

“If the dogs will do that to a sheep what if a child ran out or something,” she said.

“If a child gets hurt there would be an uproar.”

According to the Strategic Companion Animal Management Plan adopted by the Blayney Shire Council recently dogs may be declared a nuisance if they are “habitually at large, barking excessively, defecating on another person’s property, repeatedly chasing any person or animal, endangering the health or any person or animal, repeatedly causing substantial damage to anything, or outside the property on which it is ordinarily kept.

Ms Molloy said she believes people should be made responsible for their pets before something more dramatic happens.

“People who can’t be responsible shouldn’t have pets,” she said.

“We do everything we can to bait foxes but it comes back to ownership of the dogs. I don’t want these dogs around to attack again.”

Council was unable to comment at time of publication.