Amherst County dealing with stray dog problem

Amherst County authorities have been trapping and destroying aggressive dogs this year that have been injuring livestock and threatening people in the Tye River area near the Nelson County line.

“Dogs were trapped and shot over the past few months,” said Amherst County sheriff’s Lt. Greg Turner, but no complaints have been received during the past month.

“We were getting complaints of (injuries) to cattle and horses, and they were being aggressive toward people,” Turner said. Another area where dogs were targeted was the Boxwood Farm Road area, he said.

He did not have an estimate of how many dogs had been destroyed.

“The complaints go back six years, before the sheriff’s office took over animal control,” he said. The dogs bred and reproduced and became wild, and they also are vulnerable to contract rabies.

Ray Uttaro, Nelson County’s emergency service coordinator and animal control super-visor, said there had been reports of stray dogs in Nelson but that they were picked up quickly.

Uttaro said the dogs were not wild dogs, but obviously-uncared-for stray dogs.

While county residents have complained to the Board of Supervisors about stray dogs killing pets, Nelson County Animal Control has not received any recent reports of large packs of wild dogs in the county recently.

“We’ve had situations where three or four years ago there’s been a group of dogs that have attacked livestock, but that was nixed really quickly. It

wasn’t in the Tye River area, though,” he said.

No cases of rabies have been reported in Amherst County this year, but such cases have increased in the health district that includes Nelson County, most of which involved wild animals such as raccoons and skunks.

From January through July 27, the number of cases in the Thomas Jefferson Health District was 15, up from nine at this time last year.

In Nelson County, three raccoons and a skunk have tested positive for rabies, said Jeffrey McDaniel, environmental health manager for the district.

“More than 90 percent of the positive (tests) are wild animals,” McDaniel said, urging residents to stay away from them regardless of the time of year.

“Vaccinating pets also is very important,” he said. “They are a person’s ‘first line of defense’ since many times, they are between a wild animal and the person.”

Although no packs of wild dogs have been reported recently in Nelson, county residents are concerned about stray dogs there.

Nelson supervisors agreed July 13 to work on an ordinance that could require dog owners to keep their canines on a leash.

During the public comment portion of the supervisors’ April 22 meeting, residents said they were concerned about the number of dogs roaming free.

Hank Scheib, of Arrington, said he came home one day in March to find his family dog had been killed on his front porch by a pack of roaming dogs.

“I shudder to think what would’ve happened if (my son) were the first one there,” he said. “These roaming dogs have been causing a number of us emotional and economical problems.”

Elizabeth Snead, of Arrington, said she also had lost pets to stray dogs roaming the county. Snead said she wanted to be able to take a walk on her road without worrying about stray dogs.

Darlene Owens, of Arrington, said she “strongly urged” the supervisors to enact a confinement ordinance for the county. She said she has a right to be in her own yard without being menaced by stray dogs.

Dave Holm, of the Lovingston Veterinary Hospital in Lovingston, also spoke during the public comment session. He said nearly every week a family pet is brought in with an injury because of stray dogs.

Holm said a proper containment ordinance could be done “humanely.” He said the county could “adopt a progressive ordinance to take care of this.”

Currently, the only place in Nelson County that dogs are not allowed to run at large is in the Wintergreen area.

There is no ordinance in the Nelson County code that prohibits dogs from remaining unconfined anywhere else within the county.

Amherst County also does not have a leash law.

Nelson County South District Supervisor Joe Dan Johnson asked for examples of “dogs at large” ordinances from surrounding counties.

In Nelson, all dogs older than four months are required to be licensed and have proof of rabies vaccination, and the same is required in Amherst County.

In the Town of Amherst, dogs cannot roam at large and must have a collar with a license, unless they are being used for hunting or are under the immediate owner or custodian’s control.

Erin McGrath of the Nelson County Times also contributed to this story.