Don't Menace My Sheep by Eugene Wyatt
December 4th, 2004
When recent acquaintances find out that I am a shepherd, they often ask if I have problems with coyotes. No, not coyotes, I have problems with domestic dogs. Coyotes kill for food, dogs kill for fun.
Coyotes are seldom seen but you often hear them singing at night and not all coyote song is the same. It can be a yipping hip hop or a wild, atonal and arrhythmic noise, perhaps waiting for a John Cage to understand this clatter as music for us. But when they howl at the heavens, the contrapuntal harmonies of a bitch and her pups will mesmerize even those with untrained ears.
I respect how coyotes kill. They go for the throat of the sheep, behind the jaw and below the ear; the cause of death is usually shock and death comes quickly. It's curious how dogs and cats, and most animals you can touch including humans, enjoy being stroked where the coyote will kill them. Domestic dogs are a confused species, their wildness has been tempered with human nature. When it comes to food you and I kill like coyotes, taking only what we eat; when it comes to patriotism we kill like dogs, taking our rights and the rights of others.
Dogs go for the hind quarters or the face of the sheep; they bleed it to death while chasing it around ripping at its flesh and they will attack a second or third sheep without finishing off the first in their frenzy of carnage. It's a miserable situation and why I shoot dogs that menace my sheep. I try to kill like a coyote, quickly. Dogs that have tasted sheep blood or know the thrill of the chase will come back to maim and kill. I learned this the hard way, at the expense of the sheep.
Shade
To put the cross hairs of my scope over the heart of a dog is the most difficult part of bringing you the wool and lamb you want, knowing as I squeeze the trigger it's not the dog's fault. Our problems are caused by dog owners who let their untrained dogs run free. Talking to the owner is usually as useless as calling the sheriff before the fact. Two things are appropriate: kill and know you can't love enough. When Shade and I herd the sheep into the barn, I put my hand on her head and look down into her innocent brown eyes, the eyes of all dogs, to say I love you Shady dog, and it's never enough.
Eugene Wyatt
