Two dogs were mauling the young pigs as one was screaming for its life.
As Ms. Sonnenberg tried to intervene, one of the dogs lunged at her — shoulder high — by leaping over a three-foot stall. She was able to knock it to the side, tied it up with electrical cord and stopped the second dog from further attack.
But the damage was done: Two valuable pigs, one named Big Pig and the other Mini Me, were dead.
The third, a red Duroc Gilt breeding pig worth more than $5,000, was injured and terrified.
“It was awful,” Ms. Sonnenberg recalled Monday. “It was torture. They literally ripped off their hams. They ripped their ears right off.”
The brutal attack happened last week at a barn at Whiteford Center and Smith Rds. Ms. Sonnenberg was able to keep the dogs at the scene until Animal Control Officer Brett Raymo arrived.
The dogs — a Siberian husky and an Australian shepherd — were licensed and had computer identification chips imbedded. They were traced back to a Toledo residence two miles away from the Sonnenberg barn and, according to a police report, are family pets.
The dogs are under quarantine at the Monroe County Animal Control shelter and will remain there during the court process. Under state law, they can be euthanized for attacking livestock. Sgt. Geoffrey Kovenich said the owners are trying to save their dogs.
But Ms. Sonnenberg feels the dogs should be put down. They wandered two miles from their home to the barn where they leapt over a gate, jumped into the pens and attacked the young pigs, which were about 100 to 125 pounds.
Ms. Sonnenberg believes the dogs developed a taste for blood by killing some nearby chickens a few months ago. She believes that’s what led them back to the area and they are now considered dangerous.
Officer Raymo contracted the dogs’ owner and she said they were secured at the house and must have got out while she was at work when someone left a gate open.
On Monday, Ms. Sonnenberg checked on the surviving pig, Chili Pepper. It still had several bite marks and scratches on its head, ears and body. She said Chili is used for breeding and for national shows, similar to dog shows.
“It’s like a beauty contest,” Ms. Sonnenberg said. “We got really attached to them.”
The Sonnenberg family has been longtime 4-H members and participants in the Monroe County Fair. Her son, Grant, was planning to raise the other pigs for the Monroe County Fair. Big Pig was worth about $1,000 and Mini Me, a registered Yorkshire, was worth around $2,500.
When Ms. Sonnenberg interrupted the attack, both dogs were in one pen and had Chili cornered, she said. The snarling dogs were in a complete frenzy.
When one lunged at her, she shoved it over while grabbing a 2-by-4-inch board. She managed to tie up one dog with electrical cord, get the other away from Chili and call 911.
Ms. Sonnenberg said she was relieved that a child or her son did not come upon the attack because the dogs would have injured a smaller person. She said her son was able to get another pig in time for the fair. He named it Rebound.
The harrowing experience, she said, will be a learning one for her son. She said losses are a part of life and believes in “adapt, improvise and overcome.”
She said she hopes the incident will be a reminder for dog owners to keep them secure and from roaming free. “It’s unfortunate for everyone,” Ms. Sonnenberg said. “The family is losing pet dogs, we lost and the pigs lost. There are no winners in this.”
Chili, a national breeding show pig, is the sole survivor of a dog attack at the Sonnenberg family's pig barn in Lambertville last week.
(Bedford Now - May 7, 2013)
