Pen of 20 sheep entered and nine are attacked
By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
Two dogs that ran away from a Princeton Township property Wednesday attacked nine sheep at a nearby property, killing three and leaving two others with injuries so severe that a veterinarian responding to the scene had to euthanize the animals, police said Wednesday.
The owners of the dogs later agreed to have the pets euthanized, according to Animal Control Officer Mark Johnson, who responded to the attack with police.
The incident is unrelated to the case of Congo, the German shepherd facing euthanization for its attack on a landscaper in Princeton Township on June 5.
Mr. Johnson responded to the Cherry Hill Road residence with a township police officer at 8 a.m. Wednesday after police received a call that dogs had entered the family’s sheep pen, which held approximately 20 sheep.
Upon arriving, Mr. Johnson observed a Belgian shepherd and a shepherd mix in the fenced-in area.
When he tried to apprehend the Belgian “sheepdog,” which he said was still biting one of the rams, the dog came at him “barking and growling,” he said.
Mr. Johnson said he defended himself by striking the dog with a chain, but that the two dogs then dug under the fencing and escaped.
But he said he recognized the dogs from a prior incident when they had strayed from their Route 206 property approximately a mile away, and was able to identify the owner, who was previously charged with having unlicensed dogs and have dogs running at large, he said.
Mr. Johnson said both the owners of the dogs and the owners of the sheep declined to be identified “because it’s being handled out of court.”
He added, “It’s a bad situation and I’d rather not have it get worse.”
However, he said he believes the dogs’ owners “did the right thing” by deciding to euthanize their pets, and said he won’t pursue charges against the owners.
”I personally felt that the euthanasia of the dogs was punishment enough. They were family pets of these people. They did care for them, they did love them,” he said. “They felt that since it was definitely their dogs that did it, that they didn’t not want to see somebody or something else injured or killed by their dogs.”
But Wednesday’s attack may not have been the first time the dogs had killed sheep.
Mr. Johnson said an incident two weeks ago on Ridgeview Road that resulted in the death of two sheep had the same “MO” as Wednesday’s attack.
”Two weeks ago we assumed it was a coyote that did this. But now we found out these dogs were loose at the time,” he said. “We’re assuming that it was these dogs.”
If the dogs had not been euthanized, they would have been labeled “potentially dangerous,” Mr. Johnson said.
A recent ordinance passed by the township requires owners of dogs labeled as such to pay an annual fee of $700, along with other requirements about how the dogs are kept.