Sheep case shows laws inadequate

I’m currently bordering on being a rabid dog-owner wannabe.

I simply adore dogs, but I have a 17-year-old cat that deserves to live out the rest of her life without canine interruption. I’m worse than I was when I was 28 years old and yearning for a baby. I swear my neighbors walking their dogs see me coming from a distance and quickly dart out of my path so they don’t have to witness me pitifully drooling over their mutts.

So I actually was a bit surprised this week at my angry reaction to the story in Wednesday’s paper in which it was reported that the two dogs that allegedly killed and maimed about a dozen ewes, rams and lambs at a Charlotte farm in early August are still alive and living with their original owners.

The dogs’ owners have been charged with having unlicensed dogs, allowing dogs to roam and keeping dangerous dogs.

In case you haven’t been following the story let me briefly recap.

The two dogs are accused of slipping into the pasture at Done Roving Farm and Carding Mill on Aug. 5. When they were done with their bloody rampage, the serene Washington County pasture resembled a true killing field.

But that wasn’t the end. The dogs also allegedly “menaced” a mother and her two young children, forcing them to flee into their home, and entered another home where they attempted to ravage caged rabbits. Then one of the dogs attacked the town’s animal control officer when he attempted to intervene.

It wasn’t the first time the animal control officer had dealt with this particular pair of dogs and prior to the Aug. 5 attack the owners had been warned to keep the dogs tied up.

Yet right after this blood bath, the animal control officer apparently thought it best to return the dogs to the owners who had apparently been unable or unwilling to control them. He has since resigned.

The owners of the farm are still dealing with a huge financial loss and the emotion of watching those sheep that survived struggle to survive.

Meanwhile the two dogs are apparently safe and sound at home.

This case highlights serious flaws in the state’s laws surrounding dangerous dogs. The statutes are vague at best and don’t seem to even address dogs that kill farm animals.

This week, nearly two months after the incident, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office has finally filed a complaint with the court requesting that a judge order that the dogs either be kept muzzled on the owners’ property or be euthanized.

What in heck took so long?

I’d say the District Attorney’s Office and the Washington County Sheriff’s Department are simply lucky that the dogs have not again escaped and done further harm during this time.

These dogs ripped the throats out of sheep, repeatedly bit the animal control officer and threatened children.

The town’s first selectmen was quoted in the paper as saying the incident was “very unfortunate … to both parties.” And “hopefully we’ll get through this and there won’t be too much grief and heartache to go with it.”

What the heck is that all about. Maybe he should take a trip out to the farm and spend a little time with the lamb that’s still paralyzed as a result of its injuries. Maybe he can help the owners do the daily irrigating of sores to the wounded animals.

Grief and heartache?

What if the next time they get loose it’s children at the nearby school that they herd up to attack.

I’m a true dog lover, but this case should prompt lawmakers to take a look at the feeble law now on the books.