The sheep were attacked in a paddock on Mr Phelan's Armstrong Ave property in Waitara, with 17 killed and at least four of the surviving flock left with injuries that may require them to be put down.
"They've just ripped them apart," he said.
He thought the attack must have occurred early on Saturday morning. "It was like the killing fields. They were scattered all over the place."
He showed the Taranaki Daily News a photo of one of the mauled sheep which was too graphic to print.
The ewe had a large flap of skin torn off her belly and almost no flesh remaining on one of her front legs.
All of the ewes were due to lamb in about a month.
The gates were broken where the sheep had smashed through trying to get out, and it appeared some had even jumped over an eight-wire fence, he said.
"I've been in stock 40 years and never seen anything like it," he said.
The sheep were worth about $150 each, but Mr Phelan said it was more than money.
"People think they're just sheep, it's more than that. They get to be your mates."
He had been up early every morning since the attack, waiting with a shotgun at his boundary for the dog or dogs to return.
Somebody would know something about it, he said.
"It was a dry day, these dogs would have come home absolutely covered in blood."
Five sheep belonging to Waitara High School, just down the road from Mr Phelan's property, were also mauled to death last week, with another killed on Saturday, principal Jenny Gellen said.
Mr Phelan said dogs with that kind of blood lust may not stop at sheep. "Something that's going to do that is going to get stuck into a kid. If they saw my grandson they'd have ripped him to pieces."
He had rung all his neighbours to warn them.
New Plymouth District Council animal control officer Lloyd Crow said he urged anyone who knew anything or had seen the dogs to come forward immediately.
According to the Dog Control Act 1996, Mr Phelan was within his rights to destroy the dog or dogs that had killed his stock, Mr Crow said.
The legislation also states the owner of a dog is liable for damage done by the dog.
(stuff.co.nz - June 5, 2013)
