Mayfield man left with costly vet bill after his goat was mauled by a dog

The canine entered Nick Biswell's paddock at around 10.30am on February 20 while the retiree was at home.

"It came along and bit the goat's tail off and presumably what then happened is the goat tried to defend himself and got mauled around his nose and ears," Mr Biswell said.

"My bullock who has previously run dogs off the property probably saw what was happening, came over and got bitten on his ears himself."

When Mr Biswell discovered the carnage five minutes later, the dog was nowhere to be seen.

"I had to piece it all together. The owner was such a coward that they just ran away, I didn't even see them," he said.

City of Launceston regulations officer Garry Causon was called to the property the same day to verify Mr Biswell's claim.

"It was definetely a dog, we found the tail on the ground where it had been chewed off," Mr Causon said.

The dog was being walked off-lead on the Rocherlea Old Rail Trail which borders the property when it saw the goat and climbed through the fence.

It's not the first time one of Mr Biswell's animals has been attacked, which Mr Causon attributes to dog owners ignoring the law.

"A requirement for that trail is that dogs have to be walked on a lead. If it was on a lead, Nick wouldn't have the problems he's got today," he said.

"Owners trust their dogs too much. They forget they're animals, that's the worst part."

Although Mr Causon was confident that a dog was responsible, he said the council couldn't proceed with the case without being able to verify its owner.

"If we get enough evidence and prove who the offending dog owner was, they can be charged with a dog attack," he said.

"That would also give Nick the avenue to try and plan compensation because his vet bill will no doubt be quite a substantial amount of money."

City of Launceston mayor Matthew Garwood echoed a similar sentiment.

"Unfortunately, without any witnesses, we are not in a position to identify the animal responsible," he said.

Despite owning the land for more than 20 years, Mr Biswell claims he was not consulted when the Rocherlea Old Rail Trail was built next his property in 2009.

"The first I knew about it was when council branded machinery turned up and started building it," he said.

"Before then there wasn't an issue of dogs because there was no track there."