Pack of dogs tear apart baby seals

A hunt is under way for a pack of dogs that savaged and ate alive 19 seal pups in two attacks on a Far North beach.

Jonathan Maxwell, Department of Conservation Kaitaia manager, said his staff had checked the seals at Shipwreck Bay, Ahipara, just an hour before the first reported attack last week.

(...) "The seals were flapping about and the dog owner tried to stop his dogs, unsuccessfully. He attempted to put the seals out of their misery by smashing a rock on their heads."

A day later, 15 seal carcasses, some half eaten, were discovered further south at Tauroa Point.

(...) Far North District Council spokesman Rick McCall said animal-control staff were working with police and the department in a bid to track down the dogs, and a campaign had been launched to locate unregistered and stray dogs in the Shipwreck Bay area.

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