Goat Survives One Attack Only To Die In Second; Dogs Owner Is Sought

A baby goat who survived a dog attack three weeks ago was killed Tuesday when a second pair of dogs dug under the fence of its pen.

Now, animal control officers hope the public will help them find the attacking dogs’ owner.

One - a male akita/shepherd mix with no identification - was captured by animal control officers Tuesday. The other - a male rottweiler - got away and hasn’t been located.

The attack occurred just after 5 a.m. Tuesday on Neil Simpson’s 1.5-acre mini-farm on Broadway near Mullan. There, Simpson keeps a mother goat and her two babies as pets for his grandchildren.

Simpson saw two unfamiliar dogs in his yard just after sunrise and went to investigate. When he opened his back door, he heard the goats crying.

By the time he got to his goat pen, one of the babies was dead. The dogs were chewing on the mother goat and her other baby, he said. Simpson shot the akita/shepherd mix in the rump with his .22-caliber rifle and both dogs ran off. Animal control officer Jennifer Kline found the injured dog later that morning.

Simpson, the semi-retired owner of NWS Trucking, said he can’t believe this happened again - just three weeks after a rottweiler and a German shepherd jumped over his goat pen fence and badly injured the dead goat’s baby brother.

That time, Simpson shot and killed both dogs. Animal control officers fined the dogs’ owner - a woman who lived down the street - more than $600.

This time, Kline said, the dogs dug under the fence to get to the goats. The captured dog will be kept until the middle of next week, then euthanized if its owner doesn’t come forward to claim it. It is a stout dog, tan in color, with the face of an akita and floppy ears. Because it has attacked another animal, it can’t be adopted out, Kline said.

Animal control officials hope to find the missing rottweiler, which could be deemed dangerous because of its involvement in the attack. Owners of “dangerous” animals must take special safety precautions to protect humans and other animals who come in contact with their pets.

The dogs’ owners could face criminal misdemeanor charges in the death of the goat, Kline said.

Anyone with information about the dogs should call the animal shelter at 458-2532.

Once his surviving two goats return home from the vet, Simpson says he plans to keep them inside his barn, at least at night.

“I’m just so doggone upset,” he said. “People aren’t accountable.”

He may put the goats in his field, along with some new Arabian horses, for protection. In the past, he said, dogs have avoided the goats when horses were around.