KENTUCKY -- Mid-morning on November 4, 2017, two pit bulls came into our front paddock and attacked our four recently weaned foals and our miniature pony mare.
All five, sustained bite wounds to their faces, legs, necks, and bellies. One foal's injuries were so severe and life threatening that he was transported to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY where he stayed for 10 days and underwent multiple surgeries to piece back the lacerations and bites.
All five horses, survived their wounds, but the vet bills to help save them multiplied quickly. Our current goal of $15,000 will be able to cover the vet expenses. We hope to raise money to help pay for the vet bills and also help pay for the attorney fees to take the dogs' owner to trial. We want to ensure that this will not happen again.
COMMENTS:
Michaela Morrison Ward - Good luck getting any money out of them!
We had the dog attack in Butler County a couple months ago and pit and 2 other dogs killed 3 minis and basically the owner got off with a slap on the hand and he apparently was even a known felon! I had a mini attacked and mauled 25 years ago and the judge had the owners pay the 1500 vet bill and the 3000 for cost of filly. That was before judges got weak!
Best of luck for recovery of minis and good luck in court! Hopefully, Hamilton County will have stiffer sentences!
FLORIDA -- A local family is fighting to keep one of their pets alive after it was attacked by a pack of pit bulls.
The family says their small pony was minding its own business when their neighbor's dogs targeted him Sunday morning in Brooksville.
“He's had these holes here. This leg is just completely chewed up,” said the pony’s owner, Christine Whittum.
From the puncture wounds in his backside to major cuts in his head, you can almost see the pain in the eyes of Whittum’s pony named Gator.
“His ear was totally chewed off. He's got that in there because they can't close it,” said Whittum.
Whittum said Gator has been a member of her family for 20 years, but after an agonizing attack left him with severe injuries, there are few options left.
“You don't put him down unless you think he's going to be miserable,” she said.
She says it was a neighbor who woke the family up after noticing three pit bulls mauling Gator.
“He was laying down on his side where they had just been ripping his head,” she said.
So when she called county animal control, she expected a different response than what she got.
“We're like, 'Are you going to go down there and look at the horse and make a report?' He goes, 'No, do it yourself,'” said Whittum.
She claims the officer also surprised her by what he did with the dogs once he found them.
“My horse is standing here with his ear hanging off bleeding to death and he took the [Pit Bulls and handed them] back to the owner,” she said. “Once they've killed the way these guys have -- brutally like that -- they need to be put down.”
The family says Gator's survival is about 50-50 and while she’s saddened by his condition, she's also angered by the alleged actions of animal control.
“Taxpayers shouldn't be paying somebody to watch their back if they're not going to watch it,” said Whittum.
FOX 13 reached out to Hernando County Animal Control for a response to Whittum’s claims, but we could not reach anyone for comment.
The investigative body is HCSO and they say all three Pit Bulls have now been seized and they are moving forward with a dangerous dog hearing.
OHIO -- Authorities confirmed Monday they are searching for two pit bulls on the loose in Butler County after the dogs killed two mini-horses and an adult horse.
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."
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.
CALIFORNIA -- Laura Vasquez added 2 new photos to Facebook November 24, 2017 at 3:46pm ·
If anyone can help with donations to save this little girl. Was attack by a pit bull and bull dog 😢 Vet is in route. The emergency fee is $150 does not include meds, and vet check. Also if you’re in the Apple valley area Dr Zimmerman will be in the area if you need your horses check out.
Laura Vasquez added 3 new photos. November 24 at 4:27pm ·
UPDATE - the goat passed away this morning. I’m so upset and sad I couldn’t save her. Funny thing it was not my goat but surrender to me and still hurt when she passed.
Thank you to everyone who donated and for the prayers. She’s in peace now and time to help other animals. May she RIP 🐑💕FYI the goat was surrender to me (GoldenHeartslivestockrescue) prayers she makes it and prayers I can afford the bill :) paypal.me/goldenheartsreacue
NEW YORK -- A 26-year-old pony named Tango, who is retired from giving children lessons, was severely attacked by a dog on October 12.
Allison Vidro, the daughter of Tango’s owner, said she was riding the pony through a public trail in Walworth when she saw two unleashed dogs, a Pit bull and Black Lab, came running toward them.
The Pit bull then allegedly attacked the horse.
“It tore the muzzle apart,” said Lea Dill, a Walworth Animal Control Officer. “Lacerations on the side, bite marks on the chest and legs. Her muzzle did have big staples in it to hold it together and everything. At that time, the horse took off because of the attack and Allison fell off her horse."
Vidro said when she got up, all she saw was “Tango run through the trees with the dog hanging off of Tango’s face.”
Allison's mother, Laurie Vidro, saw Tango galloping down the road with a dog chasing the horse, with her daughter no longer in the saddle. Allison was down the road with another dog, a chocolate lab that was associated with the incident, as the horse, with a pit bull dog in tow, entered the Vidro’s property.
Allison had not been seriously injured after being thrown, meanwhile Tango was still being chased by the pit bull. Laurie ran towards the horse screaming “Stop it, stop it!”.
The dog’s owner pulled up in a car. “Your dog just attacked my daughter and my horse, she said.”
BLAME VICTIM In response, the Pit Bull's owner said, “Your horse kicked my dog.” The dog’s owner has been identified as William R. Berdeck, age 34, of 3046 Chili Avenue in Rochester.
Meanwhile, Trooper Jordan Szklany, responded to a report of two dogs attacking a horse in the vicinity of 4384 Canandaigua Road in Walworth. He located and secured the chocolate lab, then observed the second dog, a black pit bull, still actively pursuing the horse in an open field.
"A good Samaritan had picked up Allison after her fall,” Dill said. “The dog pursued Tango in his pasture trying to attack him more. A trooper arrived and finally commanded the dog to stop and the dog complied."
“I yelled at the dog to stop and [it] complied. I then observed the horse to have large lacerations on its throat and muzzle,” wrote the Trooper in his statement.
OWNER FLED WITH BITE DOG Allison was then able to get Tango and put her in her stall. The owner put his dog in the car and left in the same direction of the trail.
“When I rounded the corner, the scene was horrific. My daughter was kneeling down in Tango’s stall staring up at several severe open, flesh hanging, blood dripping wounds all over Tango’s face, chest and front legs.
"I first made sure Allison was not injured. She stated her right leg hurt, seemed very shaken up but okay as her tears flowed,” recalled Laurie.
Tango’s breathing labored and she was drenched in sweat. Laurie feared she would collapse from exhaustion alone from being chased for so long.
SURPRISED OWNER (REALLY "IN DENIAL OWNER") While waiting for the vet to arrive, the dog owner contacted Laurie by phone to tell her how "wonderful" his dog is and he has "never seen it act like this before" and to keep him posted.
“I did not know what to say except my pony was in very bad shape and my daughter and I were devastated.
The vet arrived and it took her approximately four hours, anesthesia, pain medication, multiple injections of Novocain and approximately 70 stitches and staples to put the pony back together.
Laurie and Allison monitored Tango until 2 AM. Tango was given daily oral pain medicine and antibiotics and put on rest until well healed.
The dog's owner Bill Berdeck claims the Pit bull was on a leash and broke free when he saw the horse. He said his four-year-old Pit Bull is “friendly and sweet and this has never happened before.”
Berdeck is being cited for a ‘Dangerous Dog’ charge and will be issued an appearance ticket for Walworth Town Court. The black lab owner was not cited as it appeared to be under verbal control of its owner during the incident.
According to Walworth Animal Control Officer, Lea Dill, the pit bull owner will be required to pay the vet bills and the Walworth Judge will determine the fate of the dog.
