WARNING: This story contains graphic content that may be distressing to readers
A baby horse was mutilated in a suspected dog attack this week at a horse farm near Beaumont, Alta., leaving the week-old foal with massive wounds across its body: a hunk of its hip and buttock bigger than a dinner plate was ripped away to the bone, and chunks of flesh missing from its flank.
Now, the owner of the Leduc County farm where it happened worries if there’s a next time, one of the children or teenagers who take riding lessons there could be attacked.
“We’ve had a problem with this house and we’ve tried to address the problem — it hasn’t really changed,” claims Connie Manning-McNichol, who owns and operates TamRac Ranch, a equestrian centre just east of Beaumont on Township Road 505.
“They’re large mastiff-type dogs and they’ve been here before.”
The house in question is her neighbour across the road, where she said two large-breed dogs showed up about a year ago, and are the same ones in Kijiji listings for a Boerboel stud dog and Cane Corso/Boerboel mix puppies produced by the aforementioned male Boerboel and female Cane Corso.
The listings were active on Wednesday, but had been taken down by Thursday.
Manning-McNichol said the dogs in the listings have come on the farm a few dozen times over the past year and chased horses there before.
“This was the first time something bad happened. But I’ve always been suspect,” she said.
On Tuesday around 8 a.m., Manning-McNichol was in her house on the property when she got a call from her barn manager that the neighbour’s dogs were in the yard chasing a mare and foal, and they’d called Leduc County bylaw.
“I looked out the windows and I could see the dogs in the pasture,” she said, adding she rushed to get dressed. As she was doing so, bylaw called her to ask if there’d been any damage to her herd.
“I said, ‘I’m just going up to check right now.’ So I went out and that’s when I found the foal.”
Manning-McNichol said she went out to the yard with her Great Pyrenees dog Rosie, who took off after the neighbour dogs and chased them away.
She tracked the foal down near a grove of trees two pastures away from the barnyard where he was supposed to be with his mother, who was frantically trying to get the attention of the barn staff.
What Manning-McNichol found was gruesome.
“He was torn up. His hip was torn. There was bone exposed. It was torn up on his side. And all I wanted to do at that point was get him to some care — what had happened was far beyond my scope of skill.”
“I called (bylaw) back and said, yes, there’s damage. There’s this foal that has been mutilated, and at this point we’re taking off to the vet.”
The week-old foal named Manhattan Project — Mani, for short — was loaded up in a trailer with its mother and rushed to Delaney Veterinary Services near Sherwood Park, where mom and baby remain under 24-hour care. Its deep wounds have been stitched up but it will be a long road to recovery.
Manning-McNichol is an experienced horsewoman of more than 30 years and said dogs become unpredictable when foals are born.
With that in mind, she said she tried to have a conversation with her neighbours to try and avoid any conflicts.
“I knew foaling was coming and I knew that can send dogs into a frenzy. So I had said that to them, that these young animals, when they’re born, these dogs just go into a frenzy so they can’t be here. I made that very clear. And then this is what happened,” she said.
“I had made a point of saying that we will be foaling soon, we have foals on the way. I can’t have these dogs here.”
She added in the past, the neighbour’s kids would come over and physically haul the dogs home “because they don’t have particularly good recall. So they would come pick them up, take them off the property, always apologizing.”
Global News spoke to the neighbour, Kelly Giesbrecht, on the phone. He didn’t want to do an interview but said he was surprised by the dog attack accusation and said his dogs have never been violent.
“That may be the case in terms of what he’s witnessed, but clearly they are violent dogs,” Manning-McNichol said, adding she had a boarding client who moved their horse elsewhere because she allegedly felt threatened by the neighbour dogs when going out in the pasture to get her horse.
The farmer said she’s had dogs her entire life, including ones that didn’t work will with horses and had to be rehomed.
“We’ve tried to have conversations with these people. Nothing has transpired,” she alleged.
Manning-McNichol said her barn manager has called Leduc County bylaw several times with concerns about the dogs, and she had called one herself as well.
“It’s not necessarily the dog’s fault. All we needed them to do was keep their dogs at home,” Manning-McNichol said.
“I don’t care what breed it is either. There’s been lots of comments about the breed of these dogs. It doesn’t matter. Owners have to be responsible for their dogs.”
Leduc County bylaw responded Tuesday morning, and arrived to find the injured foal had already been taken to the vet and the suspect dogs had gone home.
“The dogs in question are kept in a secure location so that there’s no repeat issues. We are monitoring that every day as things proceed, ” said Clarence Nelson, the director of enforcement services in Leduc County.
Leduc County would not confirm if past complaints had been received, saying that would be part of the ongoing investigation. The county would also not confirm who owns the dogs.
“While the dogs are secured and the treatment is being received, we’re collecting all the evidence that’s pertinent to this investigation. Leaving no stone unturned. And, once we put that information together, we’ll evaluate where that stands in its relevance to this investigation,” Nelson said.
The county’s investigation is ongoing. In the meantime, Manning-McNichol has more pregnant mares with foals on the way and she wants both her livestock and riding clients to be safe.
For now, she isn’t allowing kids to walk alone in the farm, and must be accompanied by an adult when doing things like going out to pasture to collect a horse.
“It’s a huge concern.”
RCMP told Global News they are also aware of the situation, have opened a file and are assisting, although Leduc County bylaw remains the lead on the case.
Manning-McNichol said Mounties visited the farm on Thursday, where she said she was reminded of Section 25 and 26 of the provincial Stray Animals Act.
It allows a farmer to kill a dog that is “pursuing, worrying or destroying that livestock,” or request through the courts that it be put down.
“We have information that says that we can dispatch these dogs if we think it’s necessary… and that may be what has to happen.”
While the dogs are supposed to be secured, Manning-McNichol said they were spotted loose again on Wednesday by a neighbour.
“A neighbour called me. The dogs were sighted on her property, and she is willing to shoot.”
There is no timeline for when the investigation will be complete.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the vet bills.
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