Licon Dairy closes petting zoo after dogs attack, kill livestock

The owners of the Licon Dairy Farm announced Monday the farm’s petting zoo was being closed after two dogs attacked and killed several livestock animals.

The farm, located at 11951 Glorietta Road, said via its Facebook page 10 animals, including deer, sheep, goats and a swan, were slaughtered by the dogs overnight. Three other animals, a goat, a sheep and a llama, were injured by the dogs.

The injured goat had just given birth this past week. None of the young goats were injured in the attack.

“The animals were in very bad shape. They were literally spread around the farm and we found the body of a baby sheep thrown as well, and there was just a lot of blood everywhere,” said Angel Licon, Manager of Licon Dairy.

Gene Licon, owner of the dairy, told ABC-7 they woke up at around 3 a.m. when they heard one of the llamas screaming. That’s when they noticed the dogs attacking the livestock.

“We are looking for the owners of a German Shepherd and a black pitbull mix from Glorieta and Quemada streets in the San Elizario area,” Licon said, “Our entire livestock, including deer, sheep and swan were killed.”

The farm’s owners said they had the animals for ten years and are “devastated.” The swan had been with the farm for nearly 30 years.

“We can purchase new animals, but it’s just that we lost the animals that we’ve had for so long. We can’t really replace that but you know we can overcome this and start again,” said Angel Licon.

The owners believe that the dogs were able to get to the animals by digging a hole underneath the gated petting zoo and crawling under the gates.

A veterinarian was going to help the family care for the injured animals, but the family was also providing antibiotics for the animals in the meantime.

The owners of Licon Dairy told ABC-7 that they would possibly be opening the petting zoo again by this Friday.

Angel Licon told ABC-7 that this is not the first time an incident like this has happened at their petting zoo.

“It happened I think about within the last 10 years. We had dogs come in and they killed all the deer too,” Licon said.

According to the Licon’s, stray dogs in the area are a serious issue. San Elizario does have an animal ordinance in place that requires pet owners to keep all their pets properly leashed under state law. Both dogs did not have a collar or microchips.

One of the owners told ABC-7 they had to shoot and kill the dogs in order to protect their animals. They are asking the public for help locating the owners of the two dogs so they can be held liable.

Anyone with information on the dogs’ owners is asked to call 915-851-2705.

The family has started a GoFundMe page after many people from the community asked how they could help the family.

The family said in a post, via the farms Facebook page,”We thank you all for the love and support. We have recived many suggestions on starting a GoFundMe. All donations will go towards new enclosures and animals that were damaged in the attack.”