Pit Bulls can easily kill a 400 pound cow.
Five dairy heifers are dead and more than a half-dozen were injured in two pit bull attacks Sunday off Oktoc Road.
Mactoc Farm farmer Bill McGee was asleep Sunday just before 3 a.m. when he was awakened by the sound of a heifer in distress. When McGee went outside to investigate, he saw a tan pit bull "clamped down" on the head of one of his 3-month-old heifers, he said.
McGee shouted at the pit bull, then fired his 20-gauge shotgun at the dog and it ran away.
But the damage was done. One heifer was dead, two were maimed and another received minor injuries.
McGee eventually went to bed and woke up later Sunday morning to discover three more heifers were dead in another pasture and a half-dozen others were injured. Several were missing ears and tails, and chunks of meat were visible through torn skin.
"That tan pit was a powerful dog," he said. A small black and tan pit bull accompanied the tan pit bull during the attack, McGee said.
Sunday night, family friend Mark Murphy kept watch over the farm's approximately 420 heifers in case the dogs came back. They did and they brought friends.
Just before 10 p.m. Sunday, the tan pit bull returned with the small black and white dog and two others. Murphy shot the black and white dog, McGee said, and the remaining dogs scattered. But the group had killed another heifer, which brought the death total to five, McGee said.
Outside Starkville city limits, Oktibbeha County has no leash laws or vicious dog laws, Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy George Carrithers said. The county doesn't have an animal control officer either, so Sheriff's Department deputies sometimes take "wild" dogs to the county animal shelter, Carrithers said.
"But if you've got wild dogs chasing livestock in Mississippi, the law allows you to take care of the problem," Carrithers said. "It's not illegal to shoot a dog if it's chasing your livestock."
Sitting in their home Monday afternoon, Bill and Patsy McGee were distressed.
"I don't know what the solution is, but county-wide, something needs to happen," Bill McGee said. "It's just horrible to find these heifers all mangled up. It was just very depressing and distressing and now you've got that feeling like, 'I can't go to bed without somebody being on guard.'"
Monday afternoon, McGee was preparing for another encounter with the dogs.
"If they come back tonight, we'll be ready," McGee said. "We're going to have a lot of firepower out here."
The Sheriff's Department has been patrolling the area and questioning neighbors in an attempt to find the dogs, Carrithers said.
Bill McGee says he has contacted residents of the Browning Creek subdivision, located directly across Oktoc Road, and warned them to be wary of the wandering pit bulls.
"We've been out here 31 years and we've never had anything like this before," Patsy McGee said.
The largest heifer killed in the attacks weighed nearly 400 pounds.
now THIS is tragic!
ReplyDeleteSounds familiar, particularly the part about the dogs scattering and taking off after the first shot. They'll be back.
ReplyDeleteIf the lower part of this farmer's fence is woven wire (typical) he should hang commercially made wire snares over low spots in the ground. It works, and any pit bull that is caught can be dispatched on the spot. Otherwise, they can be hunted exactly the same way other predators are hunted. Most all will respond to an injured rabbit squeal - mouth blown or electronic calls, and dumped with a rifle. Because a pack will scatter on the first shot, I like a wide beam light to blind them, and an AR15 with a 30 round magazine so I can bag most if not all before they can scatter. I'm partial to 55 grain Hornady V-Max in .223 for my AR, as they're too destructive for a pit to make it home even if foul hit, but perfectly humane when tucked into the boiler room.
It drives me nuts when somebody says, "Pit bulls don't belong in the city." Like they belong in the country? Pit bulls should never be in the country where anyone has livestock and pets.
I remember when neighbors would do hunting parties when there was a problem with dogs killing livestock. Many a neighbor learned that their own dogs were engaging in this, running with the pack. They were shot too. No pits ever, they were all chained securely but it would take 7-10 regular dogs to bring down a cow and even then it was tough. Where I came from, a pit off the chain was shot on the spot, no questions asked and the owner understood.
ReplyDeletePit bulls don't belong anywhere.
ReplyDelete