AUSTRALIA -- A dentist who witnessed a neighbour's pet being mauled to death said the five attacking dogs were like "a pack of hyenas".
Michael Rees, 42 said he heard the neighbour's Maltese shitzu terrier letting out a "dreadful screaming and yelping" behind his Coconut Grove property on Wednesday at 1pm.
He grabbed a cricket bat and went outside but was too late to save the small dog.
"It was really, really an awful experience," he said.
"It was like walking into a scene at an African waterhole with a dead animal and a pack of hyenas around it. It was surreal.
"By the time I got there the poor little beggar was gone."
He described the five attackers as "bull terrier, staffy, pit bull-type dogs" that were well fed.
The largest one - weighing between 30kg and 40kg - was still biting the small dog when Mr Rees approached it with a cricket bat.
But rather than running away the large dog turned on him.
"It was really aggressive," Mr Rees said.
"To have a dog killed - that is unacceptable - but to have the dog then turn on a fully grown man, that's really not on."
Mr Rees said that the five dogs had been seen in the area before and other dogs had been attacked.
City of Darwin community service general manager John Banks said had tracked down the owner of the attacking dogs in the nearby community of Kulaluk.
He said that the attack was rated "category one" which could result in fines, containment, additional registration or destruction.
(NT News - March 2, 2012)
