CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — “There was just blood everywhere,” Mary Carroll High School senior Natalie Casas recalled of the scene on Tuesday, February 11, when she arrived at the school’s agriculture barn. She discovered that a pack of stray dogs had snuck into the barn and attacked several of her and other student’s animals.
Natalie has been a member of the school’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) for the past four years. According to her, she arrived at the barn around 5:40 a.m. She had begun to turn the barn’s lights on when she noticed two dogs outside the steer aisle attempting to get at one of the animals. “I didn’t know at the time that there was more, and when I started yelling and running down, like four more dogs jumped out of my lamb’s bin,” Natalie told KRIS 6.
There, Natalie discovered one of her lambs severely injured, at the time not realizing that the dogs had also gotten to other animals. “She called me distraught, crying and saying that her lamb was hurt, and I couldn’t really understand her,” Natalie’s mother, Lorraine Casas, said. “She’s like, ‘It’s bleeding.’ I just jumped and went over to the barn, and at that point in time, she didn’t realize how much damage had already been done.”
Lorraine contacted a veterinarian to assess the injured animals, at which point she was told euthanasia would be the best course of action for two of her daughter’s animals. Natalie lost a lamb and a goat, while two more remain in recovery. Another senior in the program also lost a lamb in the incident.
The financial impact on the Casas family has been significant. According to Lorraine, the loss of the two animals alone has cost the family over $4,000. This amount does not include the care needed for the animals in recovery. “This was her last shot, and the money she would have earned off these animals this year was going toward her college education, and that’s all lost,” Lorraine said.
Cody Leal, one of the two agricultural science teachers at Mary Carroll High School and an FFA advisor, said the FFA does take on many of the responsibilities when it comes to projects around the barn. “We have a system of maintenance requests, and the district is usually pretty good about responding,” he said. “But a lot of the upkeep, like shade canopies and covered pens, is paid out of pocket by the families.”
Moving forward, Leal said the FFA is exploring insurance policies to protect student’s investments in their animals. “I’ve already reached out to an ex-ag teacher who works with insurance to see what policies are available,” he said. “This way, if something like this happens again, the students would be covered financially.”
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the barn. Leal noted that a similar attack happened about 10 years ago. “Back then, the community thought there was some kind of crazy cult running around harming animals,” he said. “The reality is it was probably another pack of stray dogs. After that incident, more chain-link fencing was added to the barn to secure it as best as possible.”
Despite the tragedy, Leal remains committed to guiding the FFA group. “We’re still Mary Carroll FFA,” he said. “We’re still going to keep being excellent at what we do. This doesn’t stop us or halt any progress we’ve made.”
KRIS 6 was notified that two of the dogs believed to be involved in the attack, a Border Collie mix and a Labrador Retriever mix pictured above, were listed on the Animal Care Services website. To verify the status of these dogs, we contacted ACS and were provided the following statement from the city
The City of Corpus Christi is aware of recent media reports regarding stray dogs attacking livestock at the Corpus Christi ISD Agriculture Barn.
On February 11, Animal Care Services (ACS) received a call regarding the attack. The pack of six stray dogs gained access to CCISD’s barn through a breach in their fence and attacked three sheep and two goats. Unfortunately, one sheep was killed during the incident, and due to their injuries, one sheep and one goat were euthanized.
Animal Care Officers were able to capture two of the six stray dogs. They set traps at the site to catch the remaining four dogs, but these efforts were unsuccessful. Officers will continue to patrol the area to locate the remaining dogs.
The two captured dogs have been deemed a threat to public safety and have been euthanized. One of the dogs aggressively bit an Animal Care Officer while in custody, and the second dog did not pass a temperament assessment.
Regarding posting the two impounded stray dogs on ACS’s adoption platform, Petconnect. Posting all impounded animals on Petconnect is common among municipal animal shelters nationwide, including those in Texas, such as Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. This practice allows owners to identify and claim their animals or be issued citations, even in the situation described above. Additionally, any patrons inquiring about a dog are informed of its availability for adoption. Just because the animal may be on Petconnect does not mean it is available for adoption.
ACS followed proper procedures in this case.
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