Off for a dog show weekend near Seattle, with all of my dogs, I arrived back home long after dark. A neighbor (who shall remain nameless) had left a message on my voice mail about 3 dogs that showed up at her house. She described them and "Oh by the way, they have been chasing your sheep ALL DAY LONG" (emphasis is mine.)

     Despite the late hour, I immediately returned her call. She told me that “the sheep were going nuts for quite a while, with the dogs barking” etc. While I had her on the phone, I went out to the barn and  found a severely injured ram lamb with my llama standing guard over it. The lamb had been mauled about the throat, neck and shoulders. Large amounts of skin had been shredded away in those areas. His belly, sides and legs were chewed and bitten.
    When I took the ATV and heavy duty lights to go look for the rest of the sheep, I purposely left both barn doors open and all interior and exterior lights on. As they are very fond of their barn, it was my hope the sheep would come from where ever they were. I also am aware that dogs that chase, kill or injure livestock always return to the scene as quickly as they can. I thought the lights might also attract the dogs.
 

     As I drove down into my pasture I discovered one of my foundation ewes - known as Ms. Ewe - dead.  She had been  mauled almost beyond recognition; her undersides were ripped open exposing most of her internal organs.  Her brisket had been chewed upon. Wool was scattered in clumps near her body.
 
 
 
 

    In the headlights I found a ram lamb and an adult ewe that had been run into the woven wire fence and were injured. I then located the mauled bodies of two more ewes in the river with an additional ewe dead about 100 feet west of the river. Along the riverbank, trying desperately to hide, I discovered 3 more severely injured ewes.
     Upon my return to barn, I saw the llama, (still standing guard over his lamb), had 3 dogs trapped in barn.  I shut the barn doors to secure the dogs, got leads and moved them into secure kennel runs. These three dogs matched the description of the dogs that my neighbor had given to me.
 
 

They were:

A very young, female Weimaraner, who appeared to be in season.

A medium size, intact male, white with orange markings, possibly a Brittany mix.

A medium size, dark golden colored, intact male that could be a retriever mix.
 
 
 
 

     I put them into separated kennels, as the Brittany cross was aggressive towards the retriever mix - probably due to the female being in season. I noted numerous injuries to the face of the Brittany mix, and to the legs of the retriever cross. I did not know if they were inflicted in a dogfight, or if the sheep and the llama had managed to get in a few licks before they killed the sheep. ( I could only hope...)
 

     At 11 pm I called Police dispatch and requested the presence of a deputy  and advised them that I had multiple dead and injured sheep and had captured what I believed to be the dogs that were responsible.

     I then telephoned the neighbor telling her that I had caught three dogs, and would she please come over and identify them? She did within a few minutes. She stated to me that they were indeed the dogs that were on her property. When she saw the injured ram lamb I like to think that the full impact of her negligence hit home. She and her husband had ample opportunity to put a stop to the dogs, but did not.

     At about midnight,  a deputy from our county sheriff's office and Animal Control arrived. Together we walked the areas closest to the house and barn, discovering additional dead and injured sheep. The three dogs were transported to the local county animal shelter for impoundment and testing.
 

The Killing Fields

August 5, 2001   Sunday  

 

     Things always go wrong at the worst possible time. My husband and sons were at sea, and I had blown out my back and could barely walk. I called my other neighbors and asked them to come and help me move the injured sheep to the barn.   Fortunately for me, they have an excavation business and immediate access to a large backhoe. When they found out how many dead there were, they wasted no time bringing the backhoe in.
 
 

     Mike and Kellie  along with their two sons Michael and Bryce came over at about 9 am. We moved all of the injured sheep into the barn to wait for the vet. In order to do that, we had to lift each one separately, as gently as we could, into a small trailer and tow it over the rough ground with the ATV.  Together with Mike’s parents Ken and Sandy (who are also my neighbors) , we photographed and  cataloged the location of all of the dead and injured sheep. I will never forget those two young teen age boys, they worked with grim determination in a pretty ugly situation. But when we pulled the ewe lamb out of the deep swimming hole, they lost it. "She was just a baby!" they said. She had been run completely through a fence, over a 50 foot cliff to her death.
 
 

     We retrieved the dead sheep, and then using his backhoe. Mike began digging the burial pit.
 
 
 

      Our large animal vet, Dr. Hunter arrived and examined all of the injured sheep. He stated that there was no way to save or repair any of the six due to the severity of their injuries. There was NO doubt in his professional opinion that all were caused by dogs. All were humanely euthanized and then moved to the burial pit.

    I was missing 10 of my 14 laying hens.  We located the bodies of four of them and buried them with the sheep.
 
 
                    

     During the course of the day we conducted an extensive search of the area and discovered eight sheep in one group that appeared to be unharmed. We also caught two more that are moderately injured and viewed several sheep from a distance but they were far too frightened to get close to. We could see lacerations on the backs of their necks and legs.  Also, large patches of wool had been ripped out exposing the flesh. They appeared to have difficulty walking, which would be consistent with both the injuries we could see and injuries inflicted in a dog attack.
 
 

We finished at about 7 pm.
 
 

August 6, 2001

     To date, a total of five sheep were found dead, six more were euthanized due to their injuries.  Ten have returned and appear to be either unharmed or moderately injured. The veterinarian feels we will need to wait a week or more to ascertain if the injuries will require euthanization.  The status of the seven remaining sheep is unknown.
 

August 8 Tuesday

    At about 6:30, a young man driving a dark gray older pick up truck showed up and introduced himself as Richard Larson, the owner of the yellow retriever mix involved in killing my sheep. Get this - he wanted me to drop the charges against his dog! While I could sympathize as a dog owner, there was no way I was willing to release his dog from the shelter.
     He told me that he had driven all of the nearby side roads and went to all of the houses near him trying to determine who owns the Weimaraner.  He seemed to feel this was all the fault of the Weim owner - not his. He also had said that he was going to make sure that the other owners had to pay.
     The Brittany mix belongs to his mom and stepfather, Mr. & Mrs. Tom Johnson. The dog’s name is “Rex” and it is the littermate of the gold dog. Larson is living at the Johnson house which is about a mile by road, down river from us.

      I asked if there had ever been a larger white colored dog at the Johnson's - he hesitated and then said that yes, the mother of these two dogs was that color, a bit on the gray side. It is a good possibility this is the dog a neighbor shot chasing deer, while the dog Rex was with it. Those two dogs had been observed chasing deer on numerous occasions.

     Larson begged, cried and pleaded with me to spare his dog. He promised he would move and never ever let it out of his sight. Knowing what the dog was capable of, there is no way that I could do that.
 

9:16 pm

     The weim owner telephoned me and related he had been told that his dog was involved in the sheep killing. He said he would contact the shelter tomorrow and sign over the dog for euthanasia.  He also said he would contact his insurance agent and get the process started. He had no quarrel with the fact that he would be required to pay the damages and that the dog should be put down. He himself had shot dogs that were chasing and harassing deer. This man apologized profusely and took full responsibility - and he followed up his words with the actions he had promised.
 

August 11, 2001

     Ewe (tag #41) returned to the farm. She was  severely mauled about the rear area with a maggot infestation in the wounds that nearly defies description. How she managed to survive as long as she did, and get back home is a testament to the Scottie breed.  The only thing I could do for her was euthanasia.
 
 
 
 
 
 

August 12, 2001

     Dan Dunn, an employee of the South Fork Fish Hatchery (Klaskanine River) came to the farm. Dunn advised me that he and another employee Chris Ketchum had two sheep arrive at the hatchery Friday and he believed they were mine and he had taken them to his home for safekeeping. I retrieved two lambs, ewe lamb #50 and ram lamb #0106. The ram lamb had some damage about his head and the base of his horns. He  was treated and survived.
     These guys took the time to catch and transport, build an enclosure, feed and water my lambs. They absolutely would not let me reimburse them for a penny of it. The only thing I could do was write a letter to his employers and regal them with what a great pair of guys they are.

     Later in the day,  neighbor Mike brought his small back hoe in to bury the dead ewe. I think that was one of the hardest things, having to open the burial pit back up to add that ewe lamb. When I was moving her body, I wanted to drive the tractor to the dog owners house and deposit her right  through the plate glass window into their front room.

August 14
 

     A neighbor 2 houses up river from us called to say that there were 3 ram lambs across the river from his place. It took some doing as they were REALLY spooked but we managed to herd them back home. They had moderate injuries and we began treatment. (They survived).
 
 

     All three of the dogs, having been held individually in  locked quarantine runs accessible only to shelter staff, tested positive for sheep wool etc in their stools. These were examined by the staff and an area veterinarian. Samples of Scottie wool was provided for comparison and matched.

     The owners of all of the dogs went into the Animal Shelter and signed the paperwork to have their dogs euthanized.

     The three dogs were humanely euthanized by the shelter staff.
 

September

     When the lambs were butchered we found evidence of severe bruising etc. Most of the meat on these lambs was not usable.

     We were advised by authorities that one of the dog owners, Richard Larson had moved to another location, one with many children and 4-H projects, acquired another dog, and it was picked up chasing livestock.... Some people and some things just never change. Now you know why I would not relent and allow him to keep the other dog alive.

Winter and Spring 2002

     As to be expected our lambing rates were down dramatically as we were lambing out young ewes. We had been used to twins and triplets but this year was one for singles.

     All of the dog owners were charged and pled guilty in court. Unfortunately, this is only a violation, but as the assistant District Attorney noted, at least there is a paper trail on these owners. As I said above, the owner of the weim was a real gentleman about the entire thing. The Johnson and Larson families were everything but. They attempted to drag this through the court system until their lawyer got one look at the evidence. It is our understanding that he told them to call their insurance company and get this settled. Up to that point they had refused to contact their homeowners insurance company.

       Amazing things happen when one's dogs are involved in something like this. It usually brings out the worst in people and this was no exception. While these two owners had never shown any responsibility towards their dogs, (intact, no licenses or vaccinations) we were called every vile name in the book and then some. They spread hideous stories  made up of whole lies. Our good neighbors were harassed for having helped us bury the sheep. Their story was that I had locked their dogs in the barn with the sheep for days so what did I expect? I don't think I will even bother to discuss that statement - the stupidity of it speaks for itself. Of course, the standard line of "well they were just sheep" was an all time favorite of theirs. To this date they have never paid the fees incurred at the Animal Shelter for holding and euthanizing etc. the dogs.

     Oregon law provides that the owners of the dogs are liable for double the damages. The insurance companies were more than eager to settle this. Sadly, if no lessons were learned then they could easily have dogs again that could repeat this nightmare. Insurance companies frown on repeat offenders.

     Perhaps here would be a good place to talk about dogs and why they do stuff like this. The reason? They were allowed total freedom to do as they pleased. No fencing or supervision. Any dog, regardless of it's breed, size, age or training is capable of this. Why? Because to a dog it is a giant squeaky toy that runs.....

     It has been a very difficult year for us. We suffered a loss of not only economic importance, but emotional devastation as well. We had worked for almost 10 years culling and selectively using rams until we had what we believe is one of the better flocks on the west coast of the United States. The ewes that were killed were ALL of my breeding stock and unrelated to our ram. They were producing spectacular lambs. Our dear friend Linda Squires, now Maffett, (no longer in the sheep business) was kind enough to send us 5 Guy grand daughters to try to recoup at least some of our past.  We believe we are on the right track.

     If you have read this far, I thank you. It has been a journey I hope never to have to take again. To us, these girls were more than just a registration number - most of their names were on their ear tags. Edith, Ms Ewe, Lucy, Dottie, Patty.....the came when they were called and  loved a good scratch behind the ears. Some of their favorite treats were lemons, red licorice, graham crackers and of course fresh apples. When situations such as this occur, one often hears "Well it was just sheep - chickens - cows" you can substitute what ever type of animal you choose.  Putting the value of the life of one animal above the other is both foolish and unfair. Until you have lived with any other kind of animal, don't ever presume to judge.

We hope that you come away from this page a better educated owner - of dogs or sheep.
 
 
 

 In memoriam....

    "Ms. Ewe"

 
 

     HOME