Last Thursday evening Ms Woolmer, who lives on Overton Road, received a call from her neighbour who said she could hear Mrs Woolmer’s cows bellowing and a lot of splashing. Mrs Woolmer and her husband Bruce went outside with a torch [flashlight] and saw two dogs trying to attack one of their cows, which was baled up in the dam.
Both dogs were described as bigger than a collie, one with short black hair, the other cream, with thin and rangy builds.
The Woolmers chased the dogs away to tend to their cows, four Dexters, which are short-legged and black – three cows and a one-month old calf. The calf and its mother and grandmother were cornered in the paddock, the older cows protecting the calf, and the third cow was singled out.
“She had five to six bites round the end of her spine near her tail and another three bites on her hip and a couple round the anal area,” Mrs Woolmer said.
“And she was severely bitten around the face and nose and ears, with multiple bites.
“She’ll survive – our animal husbandry technician came out and gave them antibiotics and tetanus injections. But if we hadn’t been there to stop it, they would have killed her.”
The other three cattle were relatively unscathed.
Mrs Woolmer reported the attack to the police who said they will prepare a report and contact Hawkesbury Council. She also reported the attack to the Livestock Health and Pest Authorities (previously the Rural Lands Protection Board) but she fears her cows are now sitting ducks until the dogs are caught and destroyed.
“And people need to be concerned about their children,” she said. “Hawkesbury Independent School is just across the road from us. It was a serious and vicious attack’, and these dogs need to be caught now.”
(Hawkesbury Gazette - Sept 6, 2012)
