Four of the Welsh's five remaining alpacas stick close together in their pen at their Centralia farm on Friday.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – One of their five remaining alpacas is limping and another is missing an ear.
Greg Welsh describes what remains of his small herd after an attack that left six of his animals dead as scared, ugly and sad.
“They’re traumatized completely,” Welsh said. “They’re skittish around me and they never used to be.”
Greg and Judy Welsh have been raising alpacas at their South Schueber Road home in Centralia about 10 or 11 years. She sells their fiber after they shear the animals once a year.
He says they’re a good tax write off. The couple has an antique store in downtown Centralia so the alpacas are a side business.
The Welsh’s suspect it was dogs that maimed their animals. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says it doesn’t know if it was coyotes or domestic dogs.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said she’s never heard of a livestock attack on this scale in her 15 years on the job.
It was about 5:30 on Tuesday morning, when Greg Welsh woke up to barking and went outside with a flashlight to find his alpacas standing chest deep in a newly rain-made pond. Two dogs at the edge of the water ran off, he said.
Some of the alpacas came out of the pond and just laid down on the ground, he said. As he checked around his farm, he found four others bloodied and dead. He described the scene as total carnage.
“When I looked in the field, there were ears all over, it was disgusting,” he said.
The veterinarian who came out that morning found bites on their noses, heads, flanks and genitalia. The vet, Dr. Robert Remund of Ford Prairie Animal Clinic, euthanized two of them.
He was preparing to put a third alpaca down – the needle was already in its neck – when it stood up, so it got a reprieve.
Remund gave the living animals antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine. He said Friday he thinks they’ll survive.
“They should, it all depends on the animal,” Remund said.
Chief Brown said on Friday a Rottweiler that lives nearby was impounded and put in quarantine for 10 days at the animal shelter, but not in connection with the alpaca attack.
It bit Greg Welsh on Wednesday as he was walking by its house, according to Brown.
The Welsh’s suspect the Rottweiler and another dog who lives with it are what ravaged their herd. Judy Welsh said she spotted the pair in their driveway on Wednesday and her husband said he recognized its bark. Brown said there is no proof the neighbor dogs killed the alpacas.
The Rottweiler however, could end up being designated as a dangerous dog, according to Brown.
The Welsh’s are locking their herd in the barn at night now.
They estimate the loss, which included some of their best breeders, at $45,000. Greg Welsh buried them on Thursday.
On Friday, one whitish alpaca – either Abbie or Angel, they still aren’t sure – with matted hair still stained pink on its neck, was on her feet with the others. She’s the one that nearly got put down, the Welsh’s said.
Remund, who’s been treating animals for some 30 years, said encounters like Tuesday’s aren’t entirely unheard of.
“One dog’s not bad, but when you get ’em in a a pack, and alpacas, or llamas or sheep start running around, it becomes sport; it’s not unusual,” Remund said.
A female alpaca - Abbie or Angel - lost one ear.
The Schueber Road alpacas stay in their pen during the day but have to be locked up in their barn at night now.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
He probably has friends or family keeping the dogs for him. The neighbors should form a watch group for if and when he finally brings them back and notify the police!
More and more I’m thinking there should be a move within the community to stiffen the penalties for dogs assaulting livestock or/and people. Even if it’s a county regulation, the county does have the right to set a penalty in addition to the state’s…
Ooops . . . misspelled vicious there. I was in a hurry. 🙁
The cops went to his house but the dogs weren’t there. I would suspect he has them well hidden. All the police can do now is watch him and I hope they catch him and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law AND kill his viscious dogs.
The owner of these alpacas should get themselves a nice, accurate hunting rifle with a scope and start doing some target practice on any canine that showed up on their property threatening their livestock. Furthermore, don’t give the owner the courtesy of telling him you did it, since he can’t control his animals anyway. Quietly bury it somewhere and keep your mouth shut.
Problem solved.
So does anyone know if there’s an active investigation on this? Is the owner of the dogs going to be charged for his dogs’ actions this past December? I hope they’re also going to keep on his rear end what with the dogs having been ‘stolen’. Not exactly the brightest move, stealing ONLY those two dogs.
Jean, I agree with you regarding state law. I’d suggest as a beginning contacting state reps and bringing this exact story to their attention, along with a copy of the state regulation and a copy of Oregon regulation for comparison, and how the ‘replacement cost’ of an animal is not actually representative of the ACTUAL cost of the animal, when you factor in cost to feed, house, care for, raise and possibly train said animal. I think that would be a great idea.
The plot thickens . . . apparently the two dogs waiting to be put to sleep that were stolen from the Lewis County Shelter are the same ones who attacked these poor critters. I hope they catch the owner and throw the book at him. What a POS.
LCR,
AC-Animal Control.
We need to have the laws in our state changed. Right now is someone’s dog kills your livestock they only need to pay the replacement cost of the animal. In Oregon they have to pay 3x’s the amount. Irresponsible dog owners need to be held accountable. And it appears that there are more and more of them. If you go on any of the other papers/postings about this latest event where the owner broke his dogs out of jail, you will see all kinds of nutcases cheering on the dogs!!!! These anti-BSL people have gotten out of control. Even so far as to protest the euthanization of dogs who have killed CHILDREN. Sick sick sick people. We need to be aware of these crazy Animal Rights whackos who put the lives of vicious dogs above the lives of our pets, our livestock and even people
I agree, Jean. We’ve been fortunate – most of our neighbors keep their dogs locked up and at least one has told us outright if we ever see their dog get loose and come after our sheep we have their permission to do what we have to. Another neighbor had to be told that if their dogs came onto our property and went after our animals we would shoot it. They were visibly unhappy but they’ve kept better tabs on their dogs since then.
People think we want to shoot their dogs when that is anything but the truth. But if we have to defend our livestock from THEIR animals – on our property no less! Like we small farmers haven’t got enough with protecting our critters and plants from the coyotes, raccoons, moles, hawks, owls, eagles, deer, *deep breath* elk, bears, mice, voles, rats, and on and on without also having to guard against other people’s supposedly beloved pets!
One question, though: who do you mean by AC?
This is horrible. I also have had trouble with neighborhood dogs killing my livestock. The worst are the pit bulls. A lab and a pit got in twice attacking my sheep. The damage this pit bull did was unbelievable. One of the sheep had it’s leg completely bitten off. The other ewe had her entire flank ripped off down to the muscle and a huge hole ripped into her that caused the contents of her stomach to ooze out. AC told me that we have EVERY RIGHT to protect our animals. So if you see one of these dogs harassing your animals, even if it’s outside of your fence causing distress to your livestock, you can shoot them. I hope that the Welshes sue the h#ll out of their neighbor for their losses. I for one would like to see the name of the owner of the dogs PUBLISHED for all to see.
The small farmers/hobbiests need to ban together to get laws changed so that we can protect our livestock-which is an investment.
We have similar difficulties with our neighbor. The justice system is not helpful for people trying to protect their livestock from dogs. You have to watch them attack your animals, take pictures to document it, and then call the sheriff’s department. I say this is crazy!
If you would like to pass on my email address to the Welches, I would like to talk with them.