filed Sep 11.06
(Original headline: Mysterious deaths have family on edge )
GLOUCESTER -- Just after starting morning rounds feeding his family's goats, 14-year-old Brandon Asbell made a grisly discovery. A pregnant goat was found cornered and partially eaten in an old barn - slaughtered by an unknown predator.
It wasn't the first time this had happened to one of the family's animals.
Since shortly after wildfires charred much of the Guinea marshes last spring, something in the night has stalked the Asbell's 14-acre property on Jenkins Neck Road. First wire cages were torn open and half-eaten rabbits left on the ground.
Then a chewed-up cat turned up - others soon went missing too. In early August a puppy suffered three puncture wounds and later died from its injuries. Two days later, a couple of goats were attacked but survived. The partially eaten goat was found dead last Thursday; the amniotic sac containing its babies was discovered outside the barn.
The mysterious animal skulks onto the property and does its dirty work while disturbing no humans. It has left scant clues to its identity. There have been no sightings.
"When I went out, because I usually feed the animals, I found her dead on a log pile torn all open," Brandon said, of Ernestine, the goat he found last Thursday.
Brandon's parents, Clint and Wendy Asbell, are on edge. They are disturbed by the vicious attacks but are most concerned for the safety of their five children at the family's hobby farm in the Guinea marshes.
"There was enough of that goat missing that it could have been half of this little girl," Wendy said, gesturing toward her 2-year-old daughter Bethany playing nearby.
The family bought the animals - particularly the goats that they use for milk and making soap, yogurt and cheese - as part of the children's home-school education.
"It's been a little more of a learning experience than I expected," Wendy said. "We're worried someone is going to catch or kill it and won't tell anyone and we'll just live in fear."
Local authorities are baffled as to what is responsible for the attacks.
"As far as we know it's an isolated incident," said Carl Shipley, Gloucester's chief animal control officer.
Tim Worrell, a Middle Peninsula game warden with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, has also been in contact with the Asbell family regarding the attacks. While some coyotes are known to live around Gloucester, Worrell felt a stronger possibility was that stray dogs were responsible, said Julia Dixon, a VDGIF spokeswoman.
"It seems like whatever it is, it's getting more bold," Clint Asbell said.
Mike Fies, a VDGIF wildlife biologist, viewed several pictures showing the attack scene and injuries to the dead goat. Based on those observations, Fies said the attacks were most likely the work of a coyote or feral dog.
"It's consistent with an inexperienced coyote or a domestic dog - a more feral dog than someone's pet because it fed," he said. "I'd say a coyote might be the most likely explanation but I couldn't rule out a feral dog."
Fies said he frequently encounters coyote kills involving sheep and other livestock while working in the Shenandoah Valley. He said coyotes first arrived in Southwest Virginia in the 1970s and colonized the Shenandoah Valley in the 1980s as they migrated toward the coast. Coyotes are considered a nuisance species in Virginia and there are no restrictions on killing them, Fies said.
"Their numbers have grown very substantially and they've gradually moved eastward. Gloucester was one of the last areas to get colonized," Fies said, adding that numbers are likely to increase.
While the Asbell family should be concerned for their remaining livestock, Fies said he did not believe their children are at risk of being attacked.
But Clint and Wendy Asbell are taking no chances. They said the children are no longer allowed outside without supervision and a secured shotgun is kept handy.
"Mom's learned to load it real fast," Wendy said.
