Family's pet goat attacked by dogs
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By Kurt Allemeier | Saturday, December 30, 2006 |
Nick Loomis/QUAD-CITY TIMES Charla Waite holds onto her son, Michael, and the family goat, Goatie, at their home in west Davenport Friday afternoon, a day after Goatie was attacked by two pit bulls. Goatie is doing well after receiving staples for a wound in his neck.
Once an indoor pet, the goat grew too big to stay inside its owners’ Davenport home — until Thursday when it was brought inside to recuperate from an attack by two neighborhood dogs.
The pit bulls attacked the miniature male goat, known as “Goatie” to Charla Waite and her family, tearing a hole in its throat that took four staples to close and leaving torn ears and several puncture wounds.
“He’s really messed up,” Waite said. “My kids just love him.
“He is like the neighborhood pet. It would’ve devastated our entire family if he’d have died.”
Waite recalled bringing their hoofed pet home for the first time. She showed how small he was at the time, holding her hand just inches off the floor of the house she shares with her boyfriend and three sons. Goatie lived in the house, wearing diapers, until a short time ago when the family decided he was too big.
The goat was back in the house Friday, laying down near its food trough and a water pan, the wool of its neck still slightly pink from blood. Waite was at work when the attack occurred, but quick-thinking neighbors wrapped shirts around the goat’s neck and rushed the goat to a veterinarian for treatment.
The dogs’ owner, Connie Sindt, was ticketed for animals running at large and for the dogs being unlicensed. They were to be quarantined for 10 days starting Friday. Waite was also ticketed in the incident for Goatie running at large.
The area where the incident occurred — Waite lives on South Vermont Avenue and Sindt on Clough Street in west Davenport — is zoned agricultural, making it legal for Waite to keep a goat, said Robyn Dobernecker, senior animal control officer for the Humane Society of Scott County. The humane society is investigating the incident, and further charges could be brought against the dog owner.
Sindt, who lives about two blocks from Waite’s house, described her 7-month-old dogs, Pooch and Princess, as playful. She said the goat wandered into her yard on Clough Street and started butting her grandson. The dogs came to the 8-year-old’s defense.
“They are not mean,” Sindt said. “I don’t want people to think they are.”
Waite was ticketed for the goat not being secured in a fenced-in area or on a leash and being off the property, based on witness reports, Dobernecker said. Waite contends Goatie was chased off the property by the dogs and plans to fight the citation.
Waite is angry the neighbor dogs have run loose on previous occasions and nothing has been done. She is concerned for the safety of her children and other young children in the neighborhood.
“There needs to be something done about it,” Waite said.
Sindt said that the dogs are kenneled most of the time and that they play with her grandchildren and other neighbor children. Pooch and Princess were not leashed Thursday to get some exercise while she worked on her truck.
“I didn’t know they had to have a leash on when they are out in the yard with me,” she said.
Dobernecker said she is unaware of any previous reports about Sindt’s dogs.
(Reporter Thomas Geyer contributed to this report.)
Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.
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