Jeanne McClanahan took this reporter on a tour of her ranch where three pit bulls or mixes attacked her livestock since Thanksgiving, Christmas, last Friday and Saturday. The bucolic setting with miniature horses, Shetland ponies, donkeys and cattle was upset by the attacks such that many of her animals fear to venture much beyond the security of her house.
McClanahan has been in touch with neighbors and she is not the only one to have trouble from the dogs. It is her hope to alert the neighborhood before the animals can target children and to possibly prevent inflicting further harm by having neighbors report the band of dogs.
McClanahan actually had occasion to see two of the three dogs as they scampered away. She describes them looking like pit bulls, one is grey and the other reddish brown. The third was just beyond eyesight in the brush. The grey dog appeared to have a collar, or something around its neck.
She contacted Harris County Animal Control, or now called Harris County Veterinary Public Health Division.
She indicates her Christmas present this year was to find one of her horses mauled to death and that two days later a humane trap was placed at the location of the bodies of her livestock by the Division.
Neighbors are asked to help catch these ravaging dogs by reporting them if seen by calling (281) 999-3191. She likewise contacted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and deputies made a report due to the value of livestock lost to the attacks. It is important to other ranchers and parents to be on the alert for the dogs and to report them if seen.
She has narrowed the area where the dogs must be coming from as near Fig Orchard Road or the nearby subdivision.
The dogs appear irregularly and only at intervals. McClanahan’s heartbreak at losing the animals is evident and it seems to bother her that she must always keep a firearm at hand just to work on her ranch.
(Star Courier News - Jan 02, 2014)
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