LISD Police were investigating the deaths of more than two dozen goats after the animals were found shot dead at the Lubbock Independent School District Ag Farm on Friday morning.
Spokesperson Nancy Sharp called the act a senseless killing, and said LISD Police were leading the investigation with help from Lubbock Police.
“This is really difficult for our students because they’ve been nursing these along,” Sharp said. “Many of these were orphaned goats and so they live at the Ag barn and so they are animals that our students are very familiar with…”
“I just want to know who thought it would be funny to do this and who thought that they could just come out here and shoot these animals,” said student Audrey Caporale, a sophomore in the Ag program at Monterey High School.
“I jumped out of the car, and that’s when I saw that they were all bullet-holed and that’s when I just stood there, and I was like ‘Is this a dream? Am I really looking at all of these babies shot?’ So, that’s when I called (Ag Manager Robert) Green, and I just kind of, yeah I lost it after that,” she said.
“There’s some sick people out there, let’s find it,” said Robert Green, Ag Manager at the LISD Ag Farm. “Let’s find out who did it. What’s going on, and take care of it. You know, a person who does that will do a lot of things.”
Sharp said 29 goats were shot, and staff believed 18 of them died overnight.
Green said ten of them were taken to a local vet to be checked out, and he expected at least nine of them to be euthanized.
Additionally, one other goat, which was grazed by a bullet, was expected to survive, and Caporale planned to take that one home to care for it.
Green said several hundred students are in the program, and take great pride in caring for the animals at the barn.
“Our vet tech class took care of them, they kidded them out they were birthed. Some of them, they’ve been bottle since day one and then some of them in the pasture that were killed were some that have just been raised, and the class had been taking care of it so, they’d been taking care of it since August,” Green explained.
Green said most of the goats were younger than six months.
“It was absolutely just meanness,” Sharp said.
Caprole, who said she was considering becoming a veterinarian, explained that the shooting was personal for her.
“We’re here to just teach kids how to take care of an animal and what its like to live on a farm and work hard with these animals and killing them and hurting them this way is not okay,” Caprole said.
“I knew each of [the goats] personally, and they knew that I was there to care for them. And, not having anyone to care for anymore hurts,” she added.
“This is obviously a terrible situation. If anybody knows anything, let us know something. If you don’t stop it, things happen again,” said Green.
“I have helped a goat learn how to walk and it was so happy and it loved me and I loved him. and just knowing that, it’s gone now. Just from a simple, stupid idea of shooting goats, it hurts,” Caprole said.
Sharp said the official charge was Cruelty to Livestock Animals, which is a state jail felony.
Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to call LISD Police at (806) 219-0212.