An autopsy performed at the Seaford Animal Hospital on Aug. 6 has determined that the cause of death for two Harbeson-area goats, belonging to Lawson's Produce owner Bob Lawson and found July 31, was an attack by an as-yet-unidentified animal.
One of the goats, a 5-year-old, was found in Lawson's driveway with its throat torn. The other, a relative newborn, was found dead nearby.
State police, who had initially been called in to investigate the deaths as part of a possible robbery attempt, contacted the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control's Fish & Wildlife Enforcement division, and the Delaware SPCA is also involved in the case.
The bodies of the goats, which Lawson had buried soon after the incident, were exhumed on Aug. 6. The doctor who performed the autopsy confirmed the cause of death was an attack, "probably by a large animal," but could not say specifically.
"Since talking with the police and the doctors, it makes more sense to me that it was a large animal," Lawson said.
The incident bears a striking similarity to another attack that took place in the Harbeson-Georgetown area in October of 2006, when Pauline and Paul Anderson, of Deep Branch Road, came outside to find two of their pet pygmy goats had been killed. The Andersons took a cast of a large paw print left near the bodies, and Prime Hook National Wildlife Biologist Annabella Larsen determined that it may have been a large dog, but was more likely a wolf.
In early December of 2006, Delaware Animal Care & Control officers and DNREC enforcement personnel were called to a Deep Branch Road residence to remove a wolf-dog hybrid and a purebred wolf from a man who had an exotic-pet permit, from the state department of agriculture, to own the animals.
"We were acting on a complaint received by the ag department," said Sgt. Robert Shank, with animal control.
"The initial call was because one of the animals had gotten loose," said DNREC Enforcement Administrator Maj. Jim Graybeal. "The man had a permit, but it was a really rinky-dink enclosure; it was a bad situation."
Neither SPCA nor Seaford Animal Hospital officials would comment on whether the two incidents may have been related, or linked in any way to the wolves removed from Deep Branch Road, but Graybeal said it was unlikely that the culprit in the most recent attack was an animal from the Deep Branch Road home.
"I think people are jumping to conclusions on that," Graybeal said. "We have no evidence to that effect, and we removed those animals almost two years ago... If there was a big wolf in the area, especially during the winter months when its food would get scarce, someone would have seen it by now."
The enforcement section had not received any complaints to that effect, however he did say they had received the occasional call about a possible pack of feral dogs, "and some of them might be big enough to do this."
"My fence is 54 inches tall," Lawson said. "It would take a pretty big animal to drag [an adult] goat over it," he said.
County councilman Lynn Rogers lost 16 goats in one afternoon around the time of Return Day in 2006, "and we discovered that it was a couple of pit bulls that we thought had been bred for fighting," he said. The dogs were removed through a joint investigation with the SPCA and state police.
Between 2006 and today in the Harbeson area, 20 goats, two Holstein cows and one horse have been the victims of animal attacks.
Officials said the investigation into the incident with Lawson's goats is ongoing.
