The Never Easy Part

Our recent days of joy with the four newborn lambs and dutiful mothers ended abruptly with a saddening 6am phone call. Patrick's words hid hard, "The black mother sheep is standing in the bathroom stall. She is bleeding badly. It looks like dogs." "I'm on my way," I replied.

As I put on my shoes and clothes, shuffling out the door I was hit with the realization that we probably lost all the new lambs and probably their mothers too. These mothers were so instinctual they would probably not leave their lambs in the face of danger. I had let them stay outside the main pen since they gave birth and were sticking to a single out-of-the-way spot, and was just ready to more them in to socialize with the herd. We have not seen roaming dogs or tracks in a long time, but obviously I waited a day too long. I feel awful what happened to them. And responsible. 

The picture above is Martha, the one found in the bathroom. Martha was a model mother of her lambs and consistent breeder. This image shows one side of teeth marks on her jaw. Her neck was punctured and she was choking on her own blood. Her back leg was so badly ripped apart that I decided not to put the images on our website. Unfortunately, we had to put her out of her misery. She was not going to live.  While I would have preferred to honor the animal by using every part, her massive internal bleeding made the carcass almost completely tainted. 

 Two dogs did this, for sport. They just killed them one by one, without eating them. Looking at the tracks I judged there were two dogs, one very large and powerful with big jaws and the other medium sized who was the follower. They snuck across the farm before the sun rose Sunday morning and made their attack after finding these in their tuck-away area behind a farm house. I found two baby lambs, brother and sister kids of the white ewe, dead on the ground laying peacfully as if they were both simply asleep. The other mother had many bites, but we administered antibiotics and washed her wounds. Miraculously, a third lamb appeared out of the bush, who Shelli found and we rounded her up to safety. The fourth lamb is still unaccounted.

We are reeling from the tragic loss of these sheep and seeking for the owner of a large Rottweiler with a red collar, as our neighbor said a horse was attacked the day before just on property over by such a dog. Until then, no animals of ours our allowed out of their enclosures!


 

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