FFA Sheep Killed by Loose Dogs at HHS

WORDS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   A family friend contacted me last night with a bit of disturbing news. Apparently several sheep owned by the Holtville High School FFA program were slaughtered by a loose dog or dogs yesterday afternoon. One of the sheep was already dead when the massacre was discovered and another three were injured so badly that they had to be euthanized, including one that was pregnant.

   And if that isn't bad enough, the incident took place during school hours when students were present on campus and could have been harmed themselves. Luckily, the dogs were gone before students arrived in the area, but the kids are also being advised not to walk their sheep around town because of the danger of being attacked.

   The incident also means a big financial blow to the FFA program which made money from selling the sheep to students. One of the sheep was also being rented which means the school will have to pay back the owner too.

   It's a senseless, stupid thing that happened and it could have been prevented. My wife and I have been on a bit of a crusade for the past couple of years to get the City of Holtville to take the problem of loose dogs seriously, but to little avail. City officials listened to us, smiling and nodding, they held many meetings on animal control, they formed a committee and appointed a part-time animal control officer, all with few results. There are still loose dogs everywhere terrorizing citizens and killing innocent animals.

   As I've said, many, many times before, I believe the solution to this problem is education and enforcement. The city already has laws on the books that are supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but they need to be more aggressively enforced. I see people walking dogs without a leash every day. I see people purposely letting their dogs run loose every day. It's quite obvious that it's same people committing these inconsiderate crimes over and over again and it's about time they were cited. Give them a few high-priced tickets and I bet the problem would end very quickly.

   I've been attacked by dogs at least four or five times since I moved back to Holtville about three years ago, and I know tons of other people who have had problems too. Just last year a loose pit-bull somehow made its way into a Holtville girl scout meeting and growled at the children. The way things are going, it's only a matter of time before somebody ends up getting seriously injured or killed, and next time it might not just be sheep.

   If you are one of the many Holtville residents that has had problems with loose dogs, I urge you to attend the next meeting of the Holtville City Council and demand that stronger actions be taken to address the problem. Maybe if enough of us are loud enough, the council will get the message.