A3B-Unc«ster Farming, Saturday, November 7,1981
BY SHEILA MILLER
BACHMANVILLE They were
grisly sights to look at. And these
were the lucky ones the ones
who survived the ferocious at
tacks.
Still skittensh, they nervously
move away bunching into a
jarnng, jumping mass of wool as
they seek protection in numbers
and confusion.
Although they didn’t realize they
had nothing to fear from this
stranger m their midst, the sheep
out on pasture at the Lebanon
County farms of Sero and Virginia
Startoni, R 1 Hershey and Lloyd
Kreider, R 3 Palmyra were
skeptical of anything unfamiliar
that' moved. This was not sur
prising considering the two flocks
were attacked by dogs last week
leaving a total of 11 sheep dead and
9 still suffering from extensive
wounds.
The Kreider flock was the first to
be hit by the canine culprits. Ac
cording to Kreider, the attack
occurred on October 24 at 5:30 in
the morning.
“The neighbor’s dog and ours
started barking and wouldn’t
quit,” recalls Kreider. “My wife
got suspicious and turned on the
light out in the sheep pasture. She
saw two dogs run.”
Kreider says he grabbed his
shotgun and flashlight and ran out
to the sheep pens. “I headed down
toward the pond because that’s the
direction I thought I saw the dogs
go. Then one dog, a police-type dog
that was on the light-colored side,
ran out of the sheep pen.
“I shot at the dog but I was too
low. I heard it yelp, so I must have
hit it in the foot. But I didn’t kill it.”
The other marauder was
described by Kreider as being a
German shepherd with gray and
black markings.
The aftermath of the dogs’
assault was not a pleasant site,
recalls Kreider. On surveying his
“Here's one we missed," said Kreider, who had the vet out
to stitch up the ‘lucky’ sheep. “We stitched this lamb’s neck
but missed her front leg and belly that the dogs had torn
open. I wash it out every day and treat it. but it's still
draining."
Dogs aren’t sheeps’ ‘best friends’
pasture, he found 7 dead sheep 2
were lying in his pond and 5 were
scattered along a small stream
that runs through the pasture.
Kreider contacted Dr. Leon
Reigel of Valley Animal Hospital,
Palmyra to try to patch up 5 of his
sheep that had managed to 'survive
their assailants’ attack. After two
hours of stitching, thj \ ctcruiariau
had done what he could for the
‘lucky’ ones.
In the mean tune, Kreider had
been on the telephone trying to
contact the local dog law en
forcement official, Ivo Talamonti,
who was away for the weekend. So
he called the South Londonderry
Township police and Officer Keith
Toomey amved soon after the call
was placed.
After surveying the damages,
Toomey showed Kreider pictures
of stray dogs in the area, but none
of them could be identified
positively by Kreider as the dogs
who attacked his flock. The officer
continues to patrol the area in
search of the strays.
This is the third time, Kreider
says, that he’s had trouble with
dogs attacking his sheep. He
recalls how he had to shoot a
Siberian husky several years ago
while it was hanging on a sheep’s
back.
“It gave tears when the owners
came to pick up the dog. They had
told the dog law officer it was only
loose a short time. But, it had no
collar on and I had to shoot it or it
would have killed my sheep,”
Kreider recounts.
“If people only realized what
these dogs can do, the dogs would
stay tied or penned up. All they’d
have to see was the damage they
did to the sheep, and that would
change their minds,” he explains.
“People don’t know they're
responsible for the damages their
dogs do.”
Kreider, who has his flock fenced
in by 39-inch high American wire
Strays kill eleven in Lebanon Count
Justifiably wary, the surviving ewes
Kreider flock are still nervous and flighty when
approached by strangers. Kreider blames the
fact that the dogs could hurt so
fence, says he’s not going to try
anything different in keeping dogs
away from his sheep: “These big
dogs that cause the trouble can
jump over the fences or crawl
through the gates. Even though my
sheep were in the pens for shelter,
the dogs chased them out and
started running them down.,”
The full-tune farmer says he’ll
just have to “keep an eye out” for
any stray dogs. “I used to be pretty
lenient about strays because I like
dogs. But this changes things. My
vet bill for the ones that made it
was $7O the first day, and the 7
sheep that were killed I valued at
$lOO a piece those Suffolk-
Cheviot crossbred ewes always
produced twins and that’s worth
more money.”
The next flock attack by dogs
occurred across the fields and a
woodlot away from the Kreider
farm. Cero and Virginia Startoni
lost 4 sheep and are watching the
slow, painful recuperation efforts
of an equal number of head.
According to Virginia, the sheep
were attacked last Thursday
morning between 8 and 9 a.m. “I
was going down to the bam to feed
my two horses and I heard the dogs
barking. Instead of going back to
I'ue house to get a gun, I ran down
to the sheep pasture to in
vestigate.”
What Virginia witnessed was two
or three “police dogs,” gray, white
and blackJn color, running her
commercial sheep down. “It was a
mess and there was blood all over.
If I would have gotten my gun,
perhaps I could have shot the dogs.
I don’t know I haven’t shot a gun
for a long while.”
When the dogs were finally
chased away and the damage
assessed, Virginia contacted her
veterinarian, Dr. Samples of
Hummelstown, and the dog law
officer. Together, she and her
veterinarian began the gruesome
task of carrying the victims to the
bam. Two of the sheep had to be
destroyed and two were already
dead. Several others were severely
injured around the head and neck,
some could hardly walk.
“It was awful. The dogs had
eaten two of the sheep on the sides
down to the nbs. One of my ewes
has one side of her face gone and
can hardly breathe. It hurts me to
see them suffering,” says Virginia.
One week after the attack, and
after three Visits by the
veterinarian, three sheep still
remain in the barn, barely eating
and struggling to survive.
Says Virginia, “WeTI never get
back from the state what we’re
losing. In order to protect my
sheep from another attack, I have
to keep them penned up instead of
out on pasture. That means I have
to start their winter feed early.”
This is the third tune dogs have
attacked and killed sheep on the
Startoni property The previous
(Tom to Page A 39)
sheep to the fact . . sheep will run and
never make a sound even when attacked.
After a while, they go into shock and just wait
his commercial ewes that is slowly recovering from wounds
sustained after dogs attacked her two weeks ago. The dogs
went for her head and neck, explained Kreider, pointing out
her eye which was severely wounded and is now covered over
sheep. She lost 4 sheep to the dogs last Thursday, and has
four other ewes that are in bad condition.
Obviously in discomfort, this ewe may not survive the
damage inflicted by stray dogs who opened one side of her
face to the bone. Another flock member had to have its ear
amputated.
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