Predator disrupts quiet farm

Something is killing animals in South Whidbey.

“For 30 years Frances and Mel Odgen Sr. have enjoyed their barnyard paradise, but now something is killing their animals.Last Tuesday at midnight a large dog or some other animal vaulted a five-foot-high steel wire fence, killed two baby pygmy goats and then jumped back over the fence, apparently with the third, bigger goat held in its jaws.Wednesday morning, the two little victims, about 10 pounds each, lay dead in the grass in their pen, each with its windpipe bitten through. About a month earlier an adult pygmy goat twice their size was killed and disembowled at the site.Those aren’t the only animals the Odgens have lost at their South Whidbey farm. For years it has been a peaceful place, with ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese and goats enjoying themselves in their protective pens. Frances likes to sit in a chair by a picnic table, shaded by one of their many trees, listening to the cackles, quacks and honks, and watching the goats play. But now there’s a pall over the farm; the animals have been moved to the pens closest to the house; and the Ogdens wait for the killer to strike again.In 30 years we’ve never had this problem, said Mel Odgen as he looked at the two dead goats. The missing goat he estimated at 20 pounds in weight. We lost a goose and some chickens, Ogden said. We figured ‘coons, but this was no raccoon. He noted that the goats were double fenced, so the predator actually had to negotiate two fences to reach to its prey. It had to be a big dog, he said.The Ogdens’ grandson, Jason, 20, heard the goats bleating that night, but by the time he got to the pen the killer was gone. Perhaps it was the same animal that killed 11 of their 20 English call ducks, one of their 20-pound geese, and a turkey. But their bodies weren’t found littering the ground. You don’t find ’em dead – they’re gone, said Francis Ogden. Island County Animal Control Officer Carol Barnes visited the Ogden farm on Friday. She too was amazed that a dog could carry a goat over the fence. She advises other animal owners in the area to take extra precautions.The Ogdens are frustrated and ready to take action themselves against the killer animal. Mel said they’ll put another goat inside a cage, and wait for the predator to come.We’re going to bait ’em and we’re going to shoot the dog. That dog’s going to die if we get a chance, said Frances.Barnes said it’s legal to kill a dog that is killing livestock. It is illegal for anyone to let a dog off their own property unless it’s on a leash. “