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closeProsecutor to decide outcome of Key Peninsula dog attack case
Citizen tip leads to owners, who give up animals to be euthanized
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
Lisa Woods never thought lightning would strike twice in her own back yard.
But in a bizarre déjà vu, a gruesome scene that played out in the pasture behind her Brookside Veterinary Clinic on the Key Peninsula two years ago repeated itself last month.
On Jan. 19, two dogs that were running loose in the neighborhood dug under the fence and attacked a sheep and three goats that Woods kept as pets. One of the goats, Ralphie, survived a similar attack by two different dogs on the previous occasion. But he was not so lucky this time.
“Ralphie managed to get into some bushes,” Woods said. “I tried my darndest to save him. But his injuries were too great. He couldn’t stand up again.”
The dogs, a St. Bernard mix and an Australian Shepherd, were chasing a wild deer that jumped the fence into Woods’ pasture. Once inside, they killed the deer and the four domestic animals.
“This deer already had a huge chunk taken out of its leg when it got into the yard,” Woods said. “There were four animals in the field. Once they got in, it was just a free-for-all.”
Woods has been instrumental in getting county ordinances changed to protect people and humans from free-roaming dogs. Now the case is in the hands of the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to levy charges against the owners, said Tim Anderson, a county animal control officer.
Anderson said authorities located the owners through a tip from a neighbor, who recognized the dogs from photos shown on TV when the story was aired by KING-5 and KOMO-4 news.
“These were unique-looking dogs, and a person called who had contact with the owners,” Anderson said. “They said they lived in Port Orchard. We thought that was a bit of a stretch, but the owners confirmed that their dogs had been missing for a couple of days. If we had not had a citizen notify us, we probably would not have been able to track the owners down.”
Woods said the owners didn’t know where the dogs were going or what they were doing.
“These dogs came two miles down the road, tracking that deer,” she said. “We have really good, secure, galvanized fencing. The dogs dug under at a soft spot near the bottom of the creek.
“My fence is doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” she added. “I’m doing my job, which is keeping my animals in.”
Woods said she doesn’t blame the dogs, whom she said were acting on deep-rooted instinct. She emphasized that those instincts are not breed-specific, and that it could happen with any dog.
“Dogs will do what they’re going to do when they run in packs,” Woods said. “It’s like a kid getting into a gang. The dogs weren’t hungry, it was just a killing frenzy, and when they were done, they couldn’t get out of the fence.”
Animal control officers took the dogs to the Tacoma Humane Society, where they were euthanized when the owners surrendered them.
“They felt that the restrictions were too difficult, and that the dogs posed a future risk,” Anderson said. “Upon facing possible civil liability, the owners opted to surrender them.”
Woods hopes the owners will have to face the consequences. The sheep that was killed, Mazy, was bought as a pet and companion to Ralphie after the previous attack.
“It was a horrific scene,” Woods said. “When they got to Mazy, they basically de-gloved her head. That means they removed all of the skin on her head, and she was still alive. We all had to take a day off from work because the place was like a triage.”
Woods opted not to electrify her fence, because her small farm was more like a petting zoo, where children enjoyed feeding the goats and Mazy.
“It’s like a freight train hitting this community again,” she said. “That sheep was just human. It’s an ongoing problem out here. There needs to start being consequences. There needs to be something that makes people stop and think.”