Lower Norton couple Loretta and Joe Richardson brought the plight of their dog Wally to the Mail-Times' attention after reading in Monday's edition the story of border collie Jack shot dead last Wednesday for being with sheep in a Riverside paddock.

Like Jack, Wally, a 10-year-old black labrador, was later found not guilty of killing or injuring sheep, but was destroyed on the spot in accordance with Section 30 of the Domestic Animals Act.

Council's planning and promotion services manager Robin Neilson explained in a letter to the Richardsons that relieving ranger Wayne Lane received a call from a Lower Norton landholder on April 2 reporting that a black labrador and kelpie had attacked several of his sheep.

The following morning Mr Lane was called to the property where a black labrador, Wally, was feeding on the carcass of one of the sheep.

The letter said that after Wally was destroyed, it was determined that although `similar in description to that of the attacking dog', he was not the perpetrator.

Mrs Richardson said Wally was locked up in their backyard the night of the attacks and had never strayed in the 10 years he had lived on their Lower Norton property.

She said she knew something was wrong when Wally failed to return from his morning run.

"I went to check on the horses and noticed he wasn't outside which wasn't normal so I called him but he didn't come," she said. "I heard a noise and then this almighty howl and I knew it was Wally. Then I heard another noise and the horses ran away."

Mrs Richardson said Mr Lane later confirmed the sounds were the two shots it took to kill her family's pet.

She said her husband had made several appeals to council to change its `shoot to kill' policy to no avail.

"When he told the ranger to consider another option when dogs had not been caught in the act of killing sheep and that it was wrong he had killed an innocent dog, he said `Get over it, it's only a dog'," she said. "They were so cold about everything, it was just horrible."