Tony Campbell, who is accused of killing 33 dogs, did not have "blood lust" but rather reluctantly and calmly carried out the shooting at a rural Wellsford property, his defence lawyer says.



Campbell and Russell Mendoza are accused of killing 23 puppies and 10 adult dogs in January 2010 at a rural property north of Auckland.



The pair are defending charges of animal cruelty and reckless use of a firearm.



In the defence's opening address at the Auckland District Court today, lawyer Barry Hart said Campbell carried out the shootings in a professional and calm manner.



"He wasn't someone who had gone to the address with a blood lust ... he went there reluctantly. He didn't want to go and destroy the dogs but he'd been asked to."

Hart said Campbell identified his targets carefully and ensured no one was in the area when firing shots.

Campbell told the court he didn't want to have anything to do with the dog shooting and he felt sorry for the dogs.



"I felt sad, the way those dogs were being kept."



Campbell said Richard Hawkings, who witnessed the shooting and is a friend of the dogs' owner, asked him to help him in the shooting.



Before the shooting, Hawkings pulled a rifle from his car and said "I'm going down to shoot all them f***ing dogs", Campbell said.



"Mate, you're in no state to use a gun let alone shoot 70 dogs," Campbell recalled telling Hawkings.



In earlier evidence, Hawkings had denied having a rifle.

OWNER: Rowan Hargreaves with three surviving puppies.

The owner of the dogs, Rowan Hargreaves, told the court last week that he heard shots being fired and a "high-pitched cry" as he waited on the other side of his property.



Some of the puppies, as young as four-days-old, survived the shooting but died later as their mother had been killed, he said.

At one stage he heard Mendoza say he needed a bigger gun and he switched from a .22 to a 12-gauge shotgun.



Mendoza shot the dogs after a feud developed following an attack on his fox terrier.

Hargreaves signed a note agreeing to some dogs being shot but said he did not know all his dogs and puppies would be killed.

In his opening address, prosecutor Joshua Shaw said the accused were set on killing every single dog on the property, with no regard to the pain and distress caused to the animals.



"It seems for these two accused this has turned into a commando exercise."



At one point a puppy escaped and hid under the campervan, he said.



"The accused leaned under the van and more or less took pot shots at the dog."