Dog-sheep conflicts rise with growth

The pasture should have been peaceful with its ewes and lambs rising with the sun to another warm day in late July.

Instead, Christi Helbling found chaos: two domestic dogs chasing and chewing on her flock, some sheep lying on the ground, their wool red with blood, some sheep bouncing off the fences as they fled the dogs in a panic, and a constant mix of excited barking and painful bleating filling the air.

Helbling was instantly stunned and mad. Out-of-control dogs were wasting much of her time and effort in caring for a 200-ewe flock of sheep on her Mistletoe Ranch, a century farm four miles south of Roseburg.

The domestic dogs were not caught, and made several more visits to the Mistletoe Ranch during August. In a month's time, Helbling had 16 sheep killed and 25 injured with five of those crippled for life by the intruding dogs.

This is a reoccurring problem in the many sheep pastures of Douglas County, according to county animal control officials.

"Some years are worse than others, but it's not uncommon for this to happen," said Don Polk, a Douglas County Sheriff's Office animal control deputy.

The domestic dogs versus livestock conflicts are the result of several factors: more small farms or ranches with livestock near expanding residential areas, more houses being built in rural areas that had previously been for agricultural use only, and more dogs on the loose because their owners think that's OK when living in the country.

But dogs sleeping on the hearth or the porch in the morning can become a predator in the afternoon if the situation is right. If a dog and a neighboring dog decide to go exploring together, they might crawl under a fence and surprise ewes and lambs lying in the shade of a tree. The sheep spook and run, and that creates the potential for a chase. In the excitement, the hidden instinct of being a predator that was there thousands of years ago returns to the dog.

"Dogs are still a predator by nature," Polk said. "They were domesticated from being predators."

"All breeds have the potential to do this," said Dr. Blair Bailey of Bailey Veterinary Clinic in Roseburg. "I think a lot of time dogs think they're playing a game when the sheep run, but once the dogs start, they'll continue to chase. Problem animals will return over and over again to chase the livestock."

"People have this big misunderstanding about pet dogs and sheep, and think only vicious dogs will kill sheep," Helbling said. "At the right place, the right time, any dog will kill an animal. But it's not the dog's fault; it's the people who don't know where their animals are."

Polk said animal control officers respond to cases involving dogs chasing horses, cattle and goats, as well as sheep.

"It's a matter of dog owners must keep their dogs accounted for at all time," Polk said. "A dog can cover a long distance in just five to 10 minutes and get itself into trouble."

Two dogs crossed the shallow South Umpqua River to reach the Mistletoe Ranch on July 29. The dogs killed five sheep and left four others severely injured. Bailey responded to Helbling's call and sewed up the wounds of the four. They survived, but three are crippled for life.

The two dogs escaped, although Helbling's son-in-law Pat McManus got off several long .22 rifle shots at the fleeing intruders. Polk also responded but could find no suspicious dogs. He requested The News-Review withhold descriptions of the dogs because the case is still under investigation.

"Once they are on somebody else's property harassing, chasing or killing animals, they're considered a public nuisance and can be killed by anybody," Polk said. "A lot of dogs do get shot."

Two weeks later and the dogs were back. One of Helbling's favorite ewes, Mariah, was found chewed up and dead. The ewe's throat was ripped out.

Two days later, Helbling found six more dead ewes and one dead ram, a ribbon-winning animal that Helbling had just recently purchased for $300. Three of those animals were found in the river, having been chased into the water where they drowned.

A week later, the Helbling's housedog began barking at 2 a.m. When Helbling and her husband Gary went outside to check, they could hear a "frenzy of barking."

"We had moved the sheep to the barn area to give them more security," Christi Helbling said. " But sheep were running in all directions, hitting fences. Dogs were grabbing at them. It was mass chaos."

Helbling had her own border collie with her and in the confusion, one of the intruding dogs followed the border collie back to the Helblings.

"I was able to catch it," Christi Helbling said. "It was panicked, but it never bit me."

The dog had no collar, but Helbling took the collar off her dog and put it on the other one. She pulled the dog across a field to a horse trailer and locked it inside.

Animal control officer Lee Bartholomew arrived at about 3 a.m. to impound the dog. The other dog remains at large.

Polk explained that the owners of the dogs are liable for double the damage to the livestock, which includes the value of the dead animal(s) and vet bills.

"We try to get them to work it out," Polk said of the dog owner reimbursing the livestock owner. "But it's not easy, and most of the time the farmer or rancher doesn't get full reimbursement."



* You can reach Sports Editor Craig Reed at 957-4220 or by e-mail at creed@newsreview.info.