Thursday, October 27, 2011

Pit bull attacks man's farm animals, police say

ALABAMA -- A brown pit bull Tuesday attacked a llama and two goats and was found eating a third goat at a Bagley Drive residence, Anniston police said.

Investigators Wednesday were looking into the incident after the 56-year-old man who owns the residence and the livestock reported the animal attacks to police.

The man told officers that he first noticed a problem when he went outside Tuesday morning around 5 to feed his llama. The animal was suffering from injuries and bite marks to its left leg, a police report shows.

Then the man noticed that two of his goats were missing. He reported that he saw a brown pit bull with a spiked collar running through his yard in the 600 block of Bagley Drive, a street west of Anniston but in the police jurisdiction near Bynum-Leatherwood Road.

As he walked through his yard, the man found one goat with both of its ears torn off and another with severe throat injuries, police Capt. Richard Smith said.

Then, in another area of the property, the homeowner caught the pit bull as it ate the third goat, Smith said.

The man told police he retrieved a rifle from his house and shot at the dog but doesn’t know whether he hit it.

Investigators Wednesday were gathering information about whether the dog has owners and who they are. Smith said the owner could be prosecuted for letting the pit bull run loose, a misdemeanor crime whose perpetrators “shall be fined not less than double the damages sustained by the injured party or parties,” according to the Alabama criminal code.

Persons convicted of the crime can also be sentenced to jail or hard labor for up to six months.

(Anniston Star - Oct 27, 2011)