This Queensland farmer lost half his sheep in a bloody attack – but was it wild dogs or rogue pets?

Jim and Debbie Dieckmann used to run a commercial sheep property but down-sized to a smaller block (and flock). Photograph: The Guardian

On the picturesque foothills of the Great Dividing Range, west of Brisbane, sheep graziers Jim and Debbie Dieckmann woke up to a massacre.

“The further I walked the more I saw, dead ones, others trying to get up with punctured lungs, their guts hanging out, udders torn to pieces,” Jim says. “It’s gut wrenching, it brings you to tears sometimes.”