Animals’ deaths goad neighbors

Something is killing goats and other livestock in the Deer Park area.

This summer, Cheryl Clark has lost eight rare pedigree goats valued at a total of about $4,000 to a predator that she believes is someone’s dog or dogs. The most recent incident was Aug. 13, when two golden Guernsey goats were killed.

Her neighbor, Sandy Beechinor, has lost two rams, six ducks and two turkeys, and Friday morning she found four chickens dead. A hole had been dug under her chicken coop.

“It’s becoming a huge problem,” Beechinor said.

Clark believes someone in the community must have an inkling that there are animals up to trouble at night when they are off their chains or out of their fenced yards. What could the owner be thinking when a dog comes home covered in blood?

“The community has to be aware of it,” said Clark, who lives about two miles from Deer Park on Montgomery Road.

After the first attack in June, when four Guernseys were killed, Clark asked the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to investigate. An officer found the print of a dog and a place where an animal had dug under Clark’s fence. She was told it was unlikely that coyotes or cougars were to blame.

A month later, two of Clark’s Nubian goats were killed.

Although Clark’s dog, who is old, blind and three-legged, alerted her to the attacks, she wasn’t able to see whatever was preying on her herd.

Goats like hers are expensive, Clark said. There are only about 20 golden Guernsey breeders in the United States, and the animals’ semen has to be imported from the United Kingdom. There currently is a ban on such imports because of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in Britain.

After reporting her losses to the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, Clark was given the use of a live animal trap, which has caught nothing so far. She has 12 goats left in her herd, which she keeps for cheese and milk.

Nancy Hill, SCRAPS director, said animal predation such as Clark has described is among the most difficult problems her agency faces.

“The majority of problems we have are witnessed by someone,” Hill said.

It is against the law in Spokane County for owners to allow animals to run loose or threaten other animals. Anyone who has lost animals should report it, Hill said.

Clark said that after a story on the goat killings appeared in the Deer Park Tribune this week, she was contacted by a former soldier who offered to sit in wait on her roof with a rifle and infrared scope.

“If I get another killing, I may take the guy up on his offer,” Clark said.

Hill does not recommend such action.

“We would rather have people follow the dog home and report it,” she said. The dog is most likely a victim of an owner’s negligence, “and you hate to see someone shoot it and leave it injured.”