Lubbock ISD police and Lubbock Animal Control Services responded to the Lubbock ISD Ag barn near Max O’Banion Baseball Field late Monday morning.
Initially an LISD official said by phone that 10 goats were shot overnight. However, after an investigation, it was discovered that 10 goats were killed by dogs.
In addition, eight other goats were injured also by dog bites, but Roger Green, manager of the LISD Ag barn, says they are expected to survive.
“They’re sore. Dog bites on the back legs, but they’re going to make it. They got some tears, but they will survive,” said Green.
Green says he and Animal Control Services will be laying out dog traps around the property. If the dogs are found with tags and have an owner, the owner will be held accountable for the attacks.
“We’re setting dog traps out here and usually they’ll [the dogs] return to the scene of the crime.” said Green.
The barn area does have surveillance cameras. When officials were reviewing the footage, Green says that they were unable to spot a vehicle or person driving through, helping to rule out the earlier possibility that the goats may have died from gunshot wounds.
The attack comes just shy of a month from when nearly 30 goats were shot at the LISD Ag barn. The goats in mid-July died at the scene or were later put down.
Of the ten goats that were killed on Monday, seven were recently donated to LISD to make up for some that were lost in July.
Green says in the past month, the LISD Ag program has lost 39 goats total, and that while dogs getting into livestock isn’t completely uncommon, the two incidents happening so close together is “unheard of.”
“These kids devote a lot of their time and energy into these animals so they grow an attachment,” said NV Medellin, a mother one of Green’s Ag students. “These are animals that are helping our kids build character, so it’s a lot more than just a farm animal for any of them.”
The goats are enclosed in pens with four-foot high fencing, but even that wasn’t tall enough to keep the dogs from jumping in. LISD police says that since the shooting incident in mid-July, they have increased patrol in the area as is, but expect to be out there more once the school year starts back up again.
“When kids start showing up and they start putting their animals up we’ll have a lot more people here to keep an eye on everything,” said Jody Scifres, LISD Police Chief.
And just like last month’s incident, Green says he’s already receiving an outpouring of support from Ag community asking how they can help out one of their own in this recent tragedy.
The assistant Ag barn manager told Green there were three dogs hanging around the barn area that morning. It is believed it may have been those three dogs responsible for the killings.
At this time, there have been no further updates in the barn shootings from mid-July.
