The clean presentation of the dogs when they were photographed by an animal control officer was an unresolved mystery at a Dunedin City Council hearing yesterday about whether they should be classified as menacing.
Had they been washed, their owner, Michaela Anderton, and her support person, Peter Wilson, asked.
Animal services team leader Cazna Savell had her own theory — the two dogs were held in the same kennel and there was time for any blood to be licked off.
There was also direct eyewitness testimony of the dogs worrying sheep.
The situation had developed after River, a male huntaway-golden retriever cross aged 2½, ducked into the sand dune at Tomahawk Beach on June 1.
Charlie, a 14-month-old Labrador retriever, followed and a search ensued.
What should be read into the available evidence of what happened at Tomahawk Beach and Ocean Grove on or near June 1, as well as the testimony of farmer Warren Mathieson, were features of the hearing.
If the council’s classification of the dogs is upheld, they will need to be muzzled in public places.
Mr Mathieson, who had been warned by a witness some time after 9am dogs were loose on his Ocean Grove property, told the hearing he saw a sheep with blood around its neck. He could hear two dogs barking.
He then saw a sheep being bailed up and a dog, identified as River, was attacking it around the neck, he said. The other dog, Charlie, was chasing sheep, Mr Mathieson said.
He called out to the dogs and they stopped and he was then able to secure them, he said.
Animal control officer Janine Day took photographs about 2.30pm and completed the impounding process.
Mr Mathieson said he saw feathers and wool around River’s face.
He and his wife yarded their sheep the following day and reported three were missing from the mob of 300.
"I’ve never found them," Mr Mathieson told the hearing, and he described the area as a forest block thick with gorse.
The couple also advised Ms Day they had been unable to find the bleeding sheep on the day, as the mob had been spooked and run into scrub.
Mr Mathieson told the hearing the first bleeding sheep he saw was not in good shape.
Miss Anderton said there was a lack of visual proof of sheep that had been killed.
It had also not been shown her dogs were responsible for a series of swan deaths at the Tomahawk Lagoon wildlife reserve, she said.
The council accepted evidence about the swans was circumstantial, rather than conclusive.
Council legal counsel Eleanor Bunt said the dogs’ classification relied on their attack on sheep.
The hearing, in front of chairman Cr Kevin Gilbert and Crs Sophie Barker and Andrew Whiley, was adjourned ahead of deliberations.
