Pet goats mauled to death by dogs

• Marie Harrow%2C of New City%2C woke up at 3 a.m. Tuesday to a pet owner%27s nightmare.
• Her two Nigerian Dwarf goats%2C Sonny and Poppy%2C were being mauled by a pair of neighborhood dogs.
• On Thanksgiving morning 2012%2C the same two dogs killed another pair of her goats.
• Clarkstown Animal Control Officer Patricia Coleman took the two dogs to Hi-Tor Animal Shelter.

NEW CITY After hearing a commotion in her backyard around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Marie Harrow rushed outside in her nightgown and watched a pair of bloody-faced dogs maul her two Nigerian Dwarf goats, Sonny and Poppy, to death.

Harrow, 83, who has raised goats for more than 30 years, grabbed a stick and tried to fend off the dogs. When she found she could not save the goats, Harrow rushed inside the house and called 911. The goats, Sonny and Poppy, were one year old.

"They were already on the ground when I got out there. But they were still alive," she explained tearfully, sitting at her kitchen table. She paused, then added: "Moaning."

The dogs, black and biege Labrador retriever mixes weighing more than 45 pounds, were ones that Harrow recognized. On Thanksgiving morning 2012, the same two dogs killed another pair of her goats.

"I knew right away," she said. "As soon as I saw them."

After the 2012 incident, the dogs' owners, Jason and Lauren Feldman, of New City, were fined in Clarkstown Justice Court. The Harrow family built a higher pen for the two replacement goats, raising the wire fence from five feet to about nine feet.

"She watched the goats die one by one," said daughter Heidi Dangler, 45, of Upper Nyack. "This is really awful for my mom to witness again by the same dogs."

She added: "Those owners should be responsible. We're never going to have her have goats again. She can't go through this again."

The family's account was corroborated by Clarkstown police. The Feldmans could not immediately be reached for comment.

Clarkstown Animal Control Officer Patricia Coleman took the two dogs to Hi-Tor Animal Shelter. She is seeking a dangerous dog order that she will submit to Clarkstown Justice Court. A judge can issue another fine or, potentially, order the dogs euthanized, according to authorities.

How the two dogs broke into the pen remains a mystery.

The Feldmans live near the New City post office on North Main Street, nearly two miles away from the Harrows, who live on Fernwood Drive. Harrow's family believes the dogs jumped from a tree-stump onto the roof of a chicken coop and then hopped the fence into the 30-by-20-foot pen, which has two small wooden sheds.

The family, including 14 grandchildren, loved Sonny and Poppy dearly. (Former Journal News photographer John Meore is Harrow's son-in-law.)

Harrow grew up on a farm in northeast Switzerland, and her backyard always has been home to a menagerie over the years. She's kept rabbits, guinea pigs, raccoons, flying squirrels, cats, gerbils and hamsters. Alongside them all, there have always been goats.

The Nigerian dwarf goats are a rare breed from West Africa that are increasingly popular in America. They weigh about 50 pounds when they're fully grown and stand about knee-high to an adult.

"These goats only wanted to be held and sit in your lap," a daughter, Bette Willins, 47, said. "They loved to be petted and coddled."

Willins worries her mother could have been mauled — or worse.

"She risked her life to protect her baby goats," Willins said. "We're just lucky she wasn't part of a very dangerous event."

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