Two dogs seized after killing seven sheep

[Liberal_in_LA]

Two dogs seized after killing seven sheep in Larkin Valley
By Julie Copeland

LARKIN VALLEY -- Two dogs believed to have killed five sheep and mortally injured two others in Larkin Valley were seized by Santa Cruz County Animal Services on Tuesday afternoon.

Animal Services field manager Todd Stosuy said a neighbor of the owner of the dogs read the report on the Sentinel's website Monday night and called the owner to alert her. Stosuy said the owner is cooperating and was unaware of her dogs' behavior.

The dogs, a 12-year-old red heeler, and a 2-year-old American Staffordshire, exhibited what Stosuy called a "serious prey drive," hunting and killing the 55- to 70-pound sheep.

"The woman was aware that the dogs were out at the time in question but didn't realize that the dogs had this propensity to act in such an aggressive manner," Stosuy said.

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He said the dogs will be declared "vicious animals" meaning they will not be returned to the owner until she builds an enclosure suitable to contain them.

these are not the actual dogs. Just examples of what a Red Heeler and American staffordshire look like. I'm thinking the killing wasn't evenly distributed.



http://www.mercurynews.com/central-coast/ci_17270401?nclick_check=1

[TwilightGardener]

1. Poor sheep--sounds like appropriate measures are being taken.

I'm glad they aren't just putting the dogs to sleep, though--they just need to be controlled.

[FreakinDJ]

2. In Sonoma County they just shoot them and hang them on the fence

and NO ...

if your dog is out killing sheep there is no mistaking it - they come home all covered in Blood

[Ian David]

3. My mom's Rottweilers brought down a few of the neighbor's emus.

The emus escaped from the nextdoor neighbor's ranch and had the bad luck to run into a pack of (otherwise friendly) rotties.

The dogs killed one bird outright, two were so badly mangled they had to be put-down, and a fourth ran into the street and was hit by a car, and also had to be put down.

On the plus side, he shared a ton of the emu meat with my mom.

Dogs behave differently when they're in a pack, and when they have their hunting instinct activated.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. did your mom look at the rottweilers differently after that?

[Ian David]

5. No. They're dogs. In a pack. Packs of dogs hunt.

For the most part, she understood that, and she'd experienced it first hand.

Once, her dogs had attacked her boyfriend's pet dingo, so she threw herself on top of the dog to try and save it.

She got torn-up pretty badly and needed surgery on her arms.

She didn't blame the dogs, because she realized she should have known better.

Also, the second time, a few years later, when she did the same thing, to try and save her boyfriend's OTHER dog.

Yeah, Mom was a slow learner.

Individually, each dog was great.

Put them together, in a pack, and trigger their primal instincts by being prey, and you're just a big piece of meat that needs to be brought down.

But under control, in groups of one or two, even the rottweilers were trained to herd sheep. They'd even earned some ribbons.

Herding is really just hinting and stalking under control.

(Yes, there are places where you can go to pay money to herd sheep with your dogs).

[hollowdweller]

6. Shoot Shovel and Shut Up

Is normally the best solution to this sort of problem if you raise livestock.

Living in the country I often am offered dogs because they really need "room to roam"

Room to roam means run loose, chase peoples livestock, kill peoples cats and other general mayhem.

I have "room to roam" and I keep my dogs up unless I am there to supervise.

My great Pyrenees dog that is a guardian for my milk goats lives in a 3 acre pasture with 5 strands of electric hi tensile.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. I live out in the twigs in the desert and have no such problems. The cougars and coyotes

make short work of dogs out here.

Have friends that have had such problems in slightly more civilized areas. They shot the dogs after the owners refused to compensate them for the losses they caused and dumped them on the owners doorstep. Problem solved.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Calling Cesar Milan....

[flvegan]

9. Killed five, mortally wounded two yet weren't covered in blood?

Um...okay.

Either way, the dogs' owner is a fucking idiot for letting the dogs (regardless of breed) roam like this.

[tularetom]

10. This may not make me very popular here

We used to have sheep and we would occasionally lose a few to what we thought were coyotes.

Once they were a pack of feral dogs and I had to shoot one of them.

Felt really bad about doing it but the sheep were our livelihood and these dogs weren't anybody's pets.

Animal control hired a predation hunter to get rid of the pack I found out later.

[TexasProgresive]

11. Hmm why did this get moved to California? We keep Nubian dairy goats

and they stay alive because of the live stock guard dogs that live with them. If that heeler and pit bull (a rose by any name is still a rose) Bebe and Mishka would have destroyed them. My neighbor know this and so there are no dogs straying around us. We have coyotes in the area but they are too smart to tackle with our guards - dogs are a whole 'nother thing.


Not one of our dogs but this Kangal dog is showing the characteristic bonding common to all live stock guardians and their charges. They do no herd the flock they are part of it. You might say they are a goat or sheep with big nasty teeth for any creature that wants to harm his/her brothers and sisters.

[shanti]

12. it would be the smart thing to do

i imagine, to get a guard dog or dogs when you have sheep or goats and live in the bush. lots of critters in the santa cruz mountains.