WARREN — A Warren father spent the day last Wednesday picking up the bodies of his family's dead laying hens, Thanksgiving turkeys and a pet rabbit, all killed in the afternoon Sept. 24 by two neighborhood dogs. Three days later, Knox County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a report of two dogs mauling a horse, also in Warren.

Carl Anderson said his wife, Heather, and their two boys, ages 3 and 17 months, were at their Cushing Road home last Wednesday afternoon when she saw two dogs, one a pit bull, running in and out of the chicken coop.

"They took turns going in and grabbing the birds, heading into the woods and coming back for more," said Anderson. "All they wanted to do was play, and when they killed them, they went back and got another."

Anderson said two-thirds of his flock is now either dead or missing. He said the body count was at 16, with 15 others unaccounted for.

"I don't know if the others are dead and in the field or the woods, because that's where they took them, and I just haven't found them yet. I have found a few, including two this morning that I had to euthanize."

Anderson raises laying hens for eggs and turkeys for slaughter at Thanksgiving. He said he had some baby turkeys that the dogs didn't find, but that the dogs ripped his son’s pet rabbit's cage off a wall to get at it and kill it too.

He said his wife called him that afternoon and told him what has happening, which prompted him to leave work at the Rockland Fire Department and head home to help. On the way there, Anderson said he called a couple firefighter friends in Thomaston, who could get to his house faster than he could, and that one of them also called the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

"Heather called me and said she saw the dogs going in and out of the coop and she went out to shoo them off, and it turned around and got in the fenced children's area and started going after her and the kids," said Anderson. "Concerned about the welfare of the kids, she got them inside the house and grabbed a gun, and then decided not use it with the shock of what was going on and just watched the carnage through the door."

When Anderson arrived 15 minutes after the call, he said it was a "horrific" scene to come home to, and know that his family witnessed it.

Anderson slaughters his birds, so he said he knows what it's like to cut the head off a chicken. What he saw at his home though, was something out of a movie.

"Birds are my passion, it's what I do. I can lop a bird's head off, but I have a hard time looking at what I saw yesterday," said Anderson.

He said his front yard looked like someone had destroyed a feather bed — but worse, with maimed, dead and dying birds everywhere. The rabbit had also been ripped apart and killed.

He said as he turned into the driveway he saw one of the dogs still on the corner of the property. The other dog, he said, was in the woods behind the house and ran off. The pit bull is the one that stayed around.

"He walked right up to me and the sheriff," said Anderson. "He was friendly and he licked my hand. It was fine with people, and then when they took the dog out of the sheriff's car and it caught a glimpse of another chicken, it wanted to go after it again.

Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Sprague responded to the Anderson residence last week and said he learned that of the two dogs, one a brindle or tiger-striped pit bull and the other a hound of unknown breed, the pit bull was the one causing the most damage and destruction.

“Heather said the pit bull was the one going in and out of the building, that it was the primary aggressor, with the hound just kind of hanging around,” said Sprague. “The pit bull was tearing up one chicken after another, and that dog also chased her inside a fenced area and into her house with her kids.”

Sprague and others canvassed the neighborhood, looking for the dogs, and Sprague said he learned that at least a dozen people on Cushing Road own one or more dogs, many of them pit bulls, making identifying the suspect dogs a bigger chore.

But while Sprague and other deputies were looking for the dogs, he said Anderson phoned to let him know the pit bull had returned and was standing in his neighbor’s yard.

“It was not aggressive toward us, I opened the back door of the cruiser and it jumped right in” said Sprague. “Thomaston ACO Rob Robinson came to assist because the Warren ACO was unavailable, and he took the pit bull to the Knox County Humane Society.”

Sprague said that it was Anderson who eventually found the dogs’ owner, way down the end of Cushing Road. Richard Young, 55, of Cushing, allegedly told Sprague he let the dogs out as usual, and knew it was gone but didn’t know where it was. He told the officer that the hound returned, but the pit bull had not. Young was issued summonses for allowing a dog at large and keeping unlicensed dogs. Sprague said he also requested restitution for the damages and loss sustained by the Anderson family.

“Mr. Young was very sincere about wanting to make things right with Carl, he felt bad about the animals his dogs killed,” said Sprague.

Anderson said it had been a long day the day after the attack, which he spent digging holes and burying animals on his property. He's also had to try and explain to his older son what happened to the rabbit, where it went.

"Ultimately, the damage is done here, and those dogs will be coming back to their owner. What I fear though, is what's next. There is a house closer to the dog's house than mine, and they've both tasted blood. Is it a cat next? Another dog?" said Anderson. "It's more than the inconvenience of having to leave work and come home to deal with this. I'm worried about what's going to happen the next time. I don't think it's done. If it gets loose again, is it going to come back here? And what's it going to do next?"

Anderson said he can replace the birds and the rabbits, but the fear his wife now has for their own dogs and their kids remains, and it won't heal soon.

Anderson also said the pit bull's owner was very sympathetic to him, and sorry for what his dog did. He said the owner was just as shocked and surprised as anyone.

"There's a silver lining to everything," said Anderson. "No people were hurt and I can replace the birds, but holy crap, only in Maine, it was such a scene to witness and it was a long morning digging holes, burying bodies, and I'm still not done."

Three days after the attack on the Anderson’s livestock and pet rabbit, Knox County Sheriff’s deputies were again called to Warren for a dog versus animal attack.

According to Deputy Lance Mitchell’s report, he responded to Western Road, near Beth’s Farm Market, where he learned that two American bull dogs had attacked a 16-year-old registered paint quarter horse being ridden by Janice Goodwin, the horse’s owner.

Mitchell said he encountered Goodwin walking the injured horse, named Molly, home and escorted her back to her residence, where the horse’s wounds could be tended to. Goodwin told the deputy she had ridden the horse to Beth’s to get an apple, and on her way back noticed two dogs in a driveway near Western Road and Middle road.

“She thought nothing of the dogs. As she passed the residence, she noticed the dogs leave their driveway and begin following her. After they went 100-feet or so past their driveway, she noticed two kids come to the end of their driveway and yell for the dogs to return. The dogs did not,” said Mitchell. “Ms. Goodwin believed if she turned around and rode back toward the residence, the dogs would follow her back
to the kids and the kids could take their dogs inside.”

Instead, as she turned and approached the dogs, they attacked and began to maul her horse. Mitchell said the attack continued for a time, and about 10 or so citizens stopped to help get the dogs off the horse.

“The boys were able to get the female dog, but it took four men to get the male dog away from the horse,” said Mitchell. Seeing that her horse was in serious distress and fearful it would go into shock, Goodwin told the deputy she dropped the saddle and began walking her horse home. The saddle was later delivered to her house by a citizen.

Warren ACO Larry Reed, in a phone call Oct. 1, said he interviewed both Goodwin and the dogs’ owner, Mike Robinson, the day after the attack. He said the horse is currently in Winthrop being cared for by a veterinarian for injuries to its abdomen.

Reed said that Goodwin told him when she passed by the driveway, the dogs initially were just nipping at the horse’s tail as it walked. He said Robinson’s oldest son had let the dogs outside after coming home from school, and the dogs are usually kept in the yard by an invisible fence. Both parents were at work when the incident occurred, according to Reed.

“The dogs went right through the fence, because they didn’t have their collars on,” said Reed. “Janice said that the dogs jumping at her horse’s tail was no big deal and she would have kept going, but she saw the boys in the driveway calling the dogs, which kept following her, ignoring the boys.”

That’s when she decided to turn around and try to lead the dogs back home, but when she got close, one of the dogs bit the horse in the abdomen, drawing blood.

“That’s when they both started jumping all over the horse, biting it, and the horse started spinning around and kicking, hitting one of the dogs’ in the face and breaking bones,” said Reed. “That dog is now at the vet too.” Reed added that the dog, Tucker, had its jaw broken in two places by the horse’s kick, and has undergone surgery to wire the jaw shut while it heals.

When Goodwin saw the blood on Molly, Reed said she dismounted and tried to use a riding crop to get the dogs off the horse, and then grabbed one of the dogs by the neck until a bystander came and took hold of that dog and she was able to walk Molly away.

According to Reed, veterinarian Paula Benner said that Molly “sustained pectoral muscle tears and deep wounds to the left abdominal area.” Benner said the worst injury was to the right side of the horse's neck, where the dog held on and tore a flap of skin approximately 11 to 12 inches in length. Concerned the horse needed to be hospitalized, Benner called around and found someone with a trailer who was willing to transport the horse to Annabessacook Veterinary Clinic in Monmouth.

"I did as much as I could on site," said Benner, who cleaned and sutured the wounds, according to Reed.

Reed said when he spoke to Robinson, he said he felt really bad about what his dogs had done and offered to pay whatever bills Goodwin incurred to help her horse recover.

“I told him I was going to have to summons him for failure to control a dog, but I didn’t feel he had a dangerous dog situation,” said Reed. “If the dogs had gone up and lunged at the horse from the start, that’s a dangerous dog. But if the dogs start nipping at the tail and then it escalates and she is able to grab one of the dogs to make it stop, then that’s not a dangerous dog.”

When asked about the Anderson’s incident earlier in the week, Reed said it sounded like a case of a dangerous dog, even though it seemed to be OK around people.

“When a dog chases and attacks a domestic animal, it’s a dangerous dog,” said Reed. “But in both cases, the District Attorney may look at the summonses issued by the deputy and myself and decide something different.”

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or 706-6655.