A prominent Kingswear farmer had warned pet owners he will shoot on sight if he finds their dogs attacking his sheep.

Richard Haddock told this week how he was forced to watch as five of his lambs had their throats ripped out by a rogue dog in a horrifying attack on his farmland. And he warned other farmers in the area that there is a killer dog on the loose.

Police are investigating the attack, said Mr Haddock.

But he issued his own warning to dog owners, saying: 'The message is clear: keep that dog on the lead or be prepared to take nothing more than the lead home.'

With the Easter holidays expected to bring a surge of visitors into the area, Mr Haddock said dog owners must accept that the law allows farmers to shoot first and ask questions afterwards when sheep are being attacked.

The attack on his farm happened in full view of a planning inspector and other officials carrying out a site visit.

Three of the lambs were killed outright and two others died soon after from their injuries but the dog, a distinctive collie/ Alsatian cross, ran off before Mr Haddock could get to it.

Now he has warned other farmers in the area to watch out for it. He said: 'It is a killer – there's no other way of putting it. When most dogs go for sheep they run round behind them and occasionally nip their back legs. This one was systematically ripping the throat out of every lamb it caught.

'We saw what was going on from some distance away but there wasn't time for me to go home and fetch my gun. We did run down after the dog but it got away into the woods and then went onto public land.'

Police are investigating the incident but, said Mr Haddock, few successful prosecutions ever resulted once the offending animal had got away.

Now he says anyone taking a dog into the countryside where there is livestock should be made fully aware of the consequences of not keeping it under control.

Mr Haddock, who chairs the Conservative Rural Affairs Group which reports to Defra, said: 'Farmers put up signs to warn when livestock are in fields but dogs can't read signs.'