Mystery animal killing livestock Posted: August 23, 2014 By Val Van Meter The Winchester Star BERRYVILLE Something is attacking livestock in Clarke County. Sheriff Anthony Tony Roper said Friday that his office wants to hear from anyone who has had livestock injured by an unknown predator during the past few weeks. Clarke County resident Dana Pugh had to put down a beloved, elderly pony when she found it backed into a corner and badly injured with marks all over him. Pugh said the attack came in broad daylight on April 9. She and her husband had gone to Winchester, and when they returned three hours later, she noticed the old pony was not with the other horses. She went out to search the field and found him bleeding. The worst injuries, Pugh said, were in his mouth ” where part of his tongue appeared to be bitten off ” and around his hips, as if something had jumped him from behind. Pugh said another horse in her field, a large quarter horse mare, had what appeared to be bite marks on her hind legs, but those were superficial and didnt require any special attention. Two other horses in the field were not harmed. Pugh said she also has Boer goats, and earlier this year a doe was found dead in the barn and her kid was missing. It was never found. Roper said he was informed of another horse, apparently attacked, this time on a farm on Summit Point Road Thursday night. Pugh said she can’t say what attacked her pony, but she does wonder about an animal she spotted the day before the attack came. She was outside in her riding ring and caught sight of a very large black cat that was creeping in the field, as if it was hunting something. “I thought, ‘My gosh, that cat looks too big to be a domestic cat.’†Pugh said shes talked to Fred Frenzel, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, based in Edinburg, about the attack and sent him pictures of the ponys injuries. Roper said all the information his office attains will be given to Frenzel, who will come up with a plan of attack. Roper said Clarke County does not have a conservation police officer ” formerly known as a game warden” at this time. Thats part of the funding difficulties all governments seem to be hit with, he said. Frenzel, who spent Thursday dealing with a bear attack in the George Washington National Forest, said hes been trying to contact people who have had livestock killed or injured. From the descriptions hes heard so far, Frenzel said, I think its more than one culprit. After speaking to a resident on Triple J Road in Clarke County, who lost several goats, Frenzel said he and the livestock owner agreed that it was a classic coyote attack the way the goats were killed. Frenzel said he is sending pictures of the wounds on Pughs pony on to an expert at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There seem to be several different things happening, he said. Its not necessarily all the same culprit. Semi-wild or even domestic dogs, which get in a group, do a lot of harm to livestock, Frenzel said. They injure a lot more than they kill, he said, because theyre not good at it. Theyre more biting and chasing stuff. Even black vultures, natures garbage men, can inflict wounds on livestock, Frenzel said, because, unlike turkey buzzards, they dont wait for prey to die before trying to lunch on them with knife-sharp bills. They kill newborn livestock, he said. Thats very typical vulture behavior. As far as a sighting of a large black cat, Frenzel said, we have no proof. As a man who has seen a pink flamingo on a lake in Shenandoah County in winter, Frenzel doesnt rule anything out. With access to the Internet, anybody can acquire anything, he added. But, he said, from what hes seen so far, the wounds and methods dont match the technique of a cat. Big cats, which feed on deer, generally bring them down by leaping on their backs, leaving large claw marks on the animals shoulders. Then, they bite the neck or throat, breaking the neck or suffocating the prey. Im not seeing that in the pictures, Frenzel said. Roper said hes not discounting anything, but so far, theres not a lot of evidence to examine. Hes counting on the public to provide more information and Frenzel to come up with the proper procedure to try and bag the predator or predators. The state has a program to trap coyotes, Frenzel said, if landowners request it. BLynn Munn, who lives on Lord Fairfax Highway, near Senseny Road, said her teenage daughter heard a commotion among her horses and went out to see what was wrong. When Munn followed with a flashlight, and swung it at the boundary fence, she caught two green eyes looking back at her from beneath the top panel, which is five feet off the ground. None of her animals were injured, but what scared her about the confrontation is the animal didnt run from her or her light, but watched her steadily. I dont know whats out here,Pugh commented. Shes keeping the lights on in her barn and blaring radios there to discourage another attack. Its no hoax, she said. Its for real. We have to take precautions until we find out what it is.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:10:06 +0000
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