Eleven goats and a chicken were killed, and four goats and a
steer were seriously injured in an attack by two pit bulls that
raided two adjoining farms the morning of March 7 before being shot
by Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies.
San Martin – Eleven goats and a chicken were killed, and four goats and a steer were seriously injured in an attack by two pit bulls that raided two adjoining farms the morning of March 7 before being shot by Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies.
Sheriff’s officials are investigating the attack by the dogs roaming at large last week, according to Santa Clara County sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Wise. The owner of the dogs has not been located.
On March 7, at approximately 7:25am, the owner of the steer walked to the rear of his property and discovered a portion of the fence between the two properties had been knocked down. His steer was on the other property with injuries to its ears and neck. The owner also noticed several dead goats and the two pit bulls attacking the other goats. When deputies responded to the 911 call, they shot the dogs as they were still eating the goats, according to Wise.
Several of the goats killed were pregnant, he added.
“There could be civil issues, value-related issues there, when the owner of the dogs is located,” Wise said.
The attack may have begun earlier, he said, as the owner reported hearing dogs barking at approximately 2am but did not get up to see what was happening.
In the wake of several attacks on domestic animals by pit bulls during the last two years, Morgan Hill City Council members will consider strengthening the city’s dangerous dog ordinance. The city’s Public Safety and Community Services Committee considered ordinances from several cities before creating a proposal for a stricter ordinance.
Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming said the proposal is ready to be presented to the city council.
“It isn’t scheduled yet for council review, but it will be very soon,” Cumming said Thursday. “Hopefully it will be approved this month or in April.”
There are two major changes in the proposal, he said. If the new ordinance is approved, dogs that seriously injure domestic animals could be euthanized. In the current ordinance, only dogs that kill other animals are automatically euthanized.
“This is a somewhat minor change, but it’s a very important change,” Cumming said. “We’ve had several instances where the animal that was attacked was not technically killed by the dog, but was so seriously injured that it had to be euthanized.”
The other change, if approved by council members, would be tighter controls on people who have had level 2 and level 3 dogs in the past or convicted felons, Cumming said.
“Under the proposal, we would have more oversight through the permit process,” he said.
The “level” ranking of dangerous dogs is a part of the current ordinance, which ranks them according to their behavior and specifies how the dog must be controlled by its owner.
Cumming said the committee initially considered adding a breed-specific clause to the ordinance but decided against it.
“We decided that that was not factually supported,” he said. “Dogs like Chows and Jack Russell terriers bite at an alarming rate. The thing about pit bulls is that they are strong and big, their jaws are able to cause serious damage to people. Unfortunately, pit bulls seem to be trained by people who want to be tough and macho; its what people think about pit bulls.”
