mmg.com.au

A property owner whose children’s pet foals were killed in a suspected dog attack at the weekend says more needs to be done to prevent future incidents.

Longwood resident Dustin Perry believes his family’s three miniature pony foals were attacked by one or two dogs on Sunday.

Mr Perry’s wife found the foals, who lived on a neighbour’s property, on Monday afternoon when she went to feed them.

One had been killed and two had been badly injured, Mr Perry said.

But one of the injured foals died on Wednesday.

Mr Perry said they were ‘‘only three or four weeks old’’.

‘‘We do breed them, but we have little kids so they’re like their pets,’’ Mr Perry said.

‘‘My wife, she’s a real animal lover, so it’s not about the money for her.’’

He was certain the foals were attacked by a dog because of the nature of their injuries.

Following the devastating discovery, Mr Perry phoned the Strathbogie Shire Council ranger to seek an investigation.

‘‘He wouldn’t even come and see me,’’ he said.

‘‘I thought he would want to come and see it before I moved it and buried it. All he said was, pretty much, there’s nothing he could do unless I could find the dog and tell him where it came from and then they could do something about it.’’

Mr Perry said the reaction disappointed his family.

He has since heard of a Jack Russell that had also been attacked on the same road.

‘‘I thought they could at least go around and ask people what they’d seen or if anyone’s even seen a dog out of the yard,’’ he said. ‘‘Surely you could do something. I just feel they don’t care.’’

A council spokesperson said the ranger had made a report about the incident, which explained a call was made at the weekend to an after-hours response number.

‘‘We have made contact with the owner on many occasions and conducted patrols of the area and have been out on site,’’ the spokesperson said.

‘‘We have no witnesses to the event and no description of the dogs was provided, so at this stage there are no further leads to which dogs were responsible.

‘‘Until then our ranger will be conducting regular patrols around the Longwood area and impounding any dogs at large in Longwood, especially until this matter is resolved.’’

The spokesperson notified police of the incident.

Anyone who sees stray animals in the Longwood area is urged to phone 1800065993.