The unfortunate attack of Swank Farms’ goats by two dogs Tuesday not only brings to light the importance of owners keeping tabs on their pets, but it also brings a sense of relief as, in hindsight, these animal deaths could have turned into a much more catastrophic event.
Yet, this story is, at its core, another example of irresponsible animal owners allowing not one, but two potentially vicious dogs free to roam and sniff out mischief – or in this case, breakfast.
And if Hollister’s animal control division can figure out who owned the dogs and those people are found criminally negligent, authorities should pursue the stiffest penalties against them for allowing at-large dogs roam near livestock. That can be either a misdemeanor or an infraction under the law. The owners, if found negligent, also should pay up in civil court, up to twice the value of the killed livestock.
One of the dogs was a pit-bull mix. The other was a hound.
The attack happened at the local hot spot – most known for its corn maze – on Tuesday morning when one of the dogs hopped a six-foot fence by climbing nearby hay bales. It attacked the animals, part of the farm’s “goat walk” attraction, killing eight and injuring six others.
A ranch foreman shot and killed the dogs after the other one also had tried to attack Swank Farms’ employees when they rushed to the scene to help.
It’s hard not to imagine the brutality of the scene – one of the slain goats was a mother likely trying to protect her kids. “Oh, it’s ugly. It’s terrible,” co-owner Dick Swank told Free Lance reporter Anthony Ha.
But it would be a lot harder to swallow if they had injured or killed the farm’s workers, or if they had instead found other people or children along their roaming path and assaulted or killed them.
Animal Control Director Julie Carreiro noted in Wednesday’s story how dogs in general – and one was a mixed breed with pit bull, infamous throughout the country for attacks on people in all types of settings – adopt a “pack mentality” when two or more are together.
Who’s to say they wouldn’t have taken on that same pack mentality if they had come in contact with other people?
Knowing how they terrorized the “goat walk,” people in that area are fortunate we won’t know the answer to that.
Swank lost eight of his goats among a group that had numbered around 50 before the attack. But we gained another reason to believe that at-large dogs, and certainly pit bulls, can be extremely dangerous. It’s another close call that gives us all a reminder about the dangers of roaming dogs and how owners must act responsibly with their pets.
