Three pit bulls attacked the ponies, named Bella and Pablo, and an adult horse in the 1900 block of West Elkton Road in St. Clair Township on Friday, confirmed Deputy Kurt Merbs, supervisor of the Butler County Sheriff's Office Dog Warden Unit.
One of the mini-ponies' owners, Mike Powell, shot and killed one of the pit bulls after it killed one of the mini-ponies, Bella, and was eating it, Merbs confirmed.
"The dog was almost on top of the deceased horse," Merbs said. "You have the right to protect yourself and your livestock. You don't have the right to shoot them for trespassing, but you can shoot to protect."
The adult horse was in such bad shape, it was euthanized by a veterinarian on Saturday, said Paul Huesing, Powell's cousin and the other owner of the mini-ponies.
The two surviving pit bulls ran off and remain at large, Merbs said.
He is working Monday to track them down - and their owner.
He said he went to a possible location for the dogs at a residence along Sipps Lane on Friday, but no one was home. He left a note asking the occupants to call.
"We are following up today. We left notice and, of course, got no phone call, so we are going back today on this. If we get any of the normal games we get out of this 'oh they are not my dogs' we will take custody of the two dogs," Merbs said.
Huesing is upset and vowed Monday to take matters into his own hands.
"I am going hunting today," he said. "I am going to go out in the field. I have a CCW (license to carry a concealed weapon), so I am always armed. There's 20 people within this quarter mile radius. There are small children. It could have been them."
Huesing broke down in tears Monday as he talked about the violent way he lost his mini-ponies.
"They're irreplaceable. They are family members," he said. "It tore my heart out. I'll never be the same."
He said they were the last of his horses.
Bella was 8 years old and just 28 inches tall.
Pablo was 6 years old and about 31 inches tall.
"There's a special bond with a person and a horse. You have them 30 years and it just tore my heart out to have to go through this," he said, crying.
"I don't want nobody to be hurt."
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones is sympathetic to Huesling's loss. He said he would be upset, too.
The sheriff is no fan of pit bulls, noting a Virginia woman was mauled to death Thursday by her two pit bull dogs as she walking them. But Jones acknowledges residents who live in unincorporated areas of the county are permitted to have them.
The animals must be licensed like all other dogs, however, he said.
"We tell people to let us know when they see them running around loose Call the dog catcher or your local police. Don't try to catch them yourself."
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Pit Bull fatally maul miniature horses, full-sized horse in Butler County
A Butler County man said loose Pit Bulls attacked and killed his two miniature horses and a neighbor's regular-size horse Friday.
Paul Huesing said three dogs attacked his miniature horses, Bella and Pablo, at the home of his cousin, Mike Powell, on West Elkton Road in St. Claire Township, where Huesing was boarding the animals.
Huesing knew something was wrong when his cousin's wife, Linda, called him in a panic.
"I said, 'What's wrong?'" Powell said. "She said, 'Get out here.' I said, 'What's wrong?' She said, 'Bella is dead.'"
Mike Powell saw the attack unfold when he went to feed the two small horses. He had a gun at the time and shot and killed one of the three dogs, a pit bull. The other two dogs, which are believed to also be pit bulls, took off running.
"His eyelids were ripped off," Huesing, describing the injuries his horse Pablo suffered. "His innards were exposed. I can't describe it. Nobody should go through this. Nobody."
Later in the day Friday, the two remaining dogs attacked and killed a full-sized horse about a half a mile away from the scene of the first attack.
"They got this one big horse," said Cheryl Callahan, a horse owner who lives next to the Powells. "Now if they can take down one big horse, I've got two big horses plus the baby."
As word of the attacks spread, Callahan took steps to secure her own stable of horses.
"Me being protective, I've just, I've been putting them up," said Callahan. "I put them in the corral beside the barn, put them in at night. We watch them all day long."
Callahan is deeply saddened by what Huesing has had to endure.
"The look on his face when I went over there was just unbelievable," she said. "I couldn't imagine."
"I can't describe the heartache, the thought of them being torn apart," Huesing said. "My baby was this big (lifting his hand about 2 feet off the ground) and probably didn't weigh 250 pounds. And I helped the dog warden carry the dead pit bull up in a bag, and it took both of is. That dog was 100 pounds."
WLWT investigator Todd Dykes spoke to Butler County's supervisor of dog wardens, Deputy Kurt Merbs, late in the afternoon on Monday.
Merbs said it's not clear where the two other dogs involved in Friday's attacks are.
He advises neighbors to be cautious and alert the sheriff's department of any stray dogs.
One of the two attacking dogs is white, possibly with black streaks. Witnesses said the other dog simply has a darker coat.
Neighbors believe they know who owns the dogs, but Merbs said investigators are still trying to make that determination. He added that charges are possible.
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(FOX19 - Dec 19, 2017)
Unfortunately, this happens all the time and doesn't get reported. Just the other day my farrier came over nearly in tears, the last place they were at had two miniature horses mauled to death by pits.
ReplyDeleteThat is awful B Cazz.
DeleteI hope this man is successful in his hunt.
ReplyDelete