Two dogs roaming near a remote Elizabeth subdivision were shot
and killed when a landowner found the animals attacking his
livestock.
Tim Baum, who lives on about six acres in the 44000 block of
County Road 29, told sheriff’s investigators the dogs had been
attacking his cattle. At about 9 p.m. Jan. 10, a neighbor alerted
Baum that Baum’s cattle were bellowing to the sound of dogs
barking.
Baum retrieved a firearm and entered his cattle pen to find a
dog hanging off the nose of one of his cattle, said Michelle
Mattive, Elbert County sheriff’s investigator. Baum told Mattive
six cattle were attacked and one was missing a jaw as a result of
the incident.
Baum, 45, shot the dogs and alerted the sheriff’s office. In
Colorado, an owner of livestock can legally kill an animal that is
attacking or “worrying” the livestock, Mattive said.
Officers arrived to find the cattle bleeding from multiple bite
marks, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The animals were two pit bull mixes, which did not appear to be
fully grown, Mattive said. One appeared to be a rottweiler/pit bull
mix, which weighed about 50 pounds, and the other was a
light-colored pit bull mixed with an unknown breed, which appeared
to weigh about 40 pounds.
The night the animals were killed was not the first time they
had attacked Baum’s livestock, the sheriff’s office report
says.
Baum had alerted the sheriff’s office Dec. 6, 2007, that the
same dogs attacked the goats he kept on his property. At the time
of the report, Baum informed officers the dogs killed three goats
valued at about $500.
A subsequent investigation led officers to a home in Sun Country
Meadows, which is adjacent to County Road 29. Sun Country Meadows
is about 15 miles northeast of Elizabeth. At press time, the owner
of the animals has not been charged because officers have been
unable to make contact with the owner, Mattive said.
“They will be cited for harboring a vicious animal,” Mattive
said.
303-663-7162 | rmoore@ccnewspapers.com