Llama Latest Dog Attack Victim Roaming By Pets Legal In Rural Area

After Dennis Wuerth found one of his favorite llamas disemboweled by a pack of domestic dogs, he took to sleeping with a rifle on the back deck of his north Thurston County home.

He’s also electrifying his fence, coming home every day at lunch to count his 23-llama herd and asking the County Commission for help.

“I don’t know what to do,” Wuerth told county commissioners earlier this week. “I can’t leave my house without a rifle on my shoulder. I’m going to be in a siege mentality.”

Unlike its more urban neighbors of King and Pierce counties, much of unincorporated Thurston County is a control-free zone, meaning animals can roam freely.

As a result, attacks on livestock are commonplace, said Susanne Beauregard, director of Thurston County Animal Services. This year, there have been 114 complaints about livestock and pet injuries, mostly caused by dogs.

The attack on Elmira the llama on Oct. 15 was the eighth animal attack since June in the Johnson Point neighborhood. Two llamas, dozens of chickens and a cat have been killed.

“I have seen more killing in the past four months than I want to see in my life,” a weeping Donna Watson, one of Wuerth’s neighbors, told commissioners.

Commissioner Judy Wilson is sympathetic, but says she’s powerless.

“The fact is that (Wuerth) has his animals on his property, and he frankly does not appreciate having to take extraordinary measures to protect himself from his neighbors’ pets,” Wilson told The News Tribune of Tacoma after the meeting.

“And I don’t blame him. But to ask the government to fix it all is asking a tremendous amount of the government.”

County Animal Services has only four animal control officers for the entire county.

Beauregard says the animals doing the killing are not necessarily vicious or large. “Actually, we had a Pomeranian that took out ostriches,” she said.

No one has witnessed any of the attacks, and Beauregard says she can’t have her small staff staking out pastures.

The neighbors could petition the commission and go through a public-hearing process to become a voluntary “pet control zone,” where owners agree not to let their cats and dogs roam and Animal Services picks up stray pets.

But people often are reluctant to do that, Beauregard said.

“They don’t even want to register their dogs,” which is required throughout the county, she said.

Livestock owners have the legal right to shoot any animal that comes onto their property and menaces their animals, she added.