A pack of dogs dug under a fence surrounding a goat pen in Rainbow Valley and killed about 60 of the animals, according to the dairy's owner, wiping out close to a third of the herd overnight and throwing the operation's future into question.
Wendell Crow, owner and president of Crow's Dairy, said the attack was discovered Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, and a staff member saw the dogs running from the scene afterward, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix. Crow called animal control, but officials said they could not act without proof such as photographs identifying the dogs involved. He described the toll in personal terms, saying the goats can be like your best friend, per the station's report.
A Third of the Herd Gone, Production Halted
Crow estimated the attack killed about 30% of his herd and said it has harmed the dairy's future, the same account notes. He said he will start shutting down goat cheese production, stop retail sales once existing inventory sells out, and continue supplying existing restaurant customers in the meantime. Crow told the station he hopes to resume full operations by the new year.
Crow's Dairy sits in a rural pocket of Buckeye near the Gila River, where Wendell Crow and his team have milked around 180 goats each day, according to a profile by Edible Phoenix. That same profile reported the dairy producing up to 400 pounds of cheese daily, while FOX 10 Phoenix's more recent report put output at roughly 100 to 200 pounds a day; the dossier does not clarify whether the figures reflect actual output versus maximum capacity. Edible Phoenix also described Crow driving across the Valley to deliver his cheese to restaurant clients, a customer base the dairy has built over years of supplying goat cheese to resorts and restaurants in the region.
Roaming Dogs a Recurring Rural Hazard
Rainbow Valley residents letting their dogs roam freely has been identified as a factor in the attack, FOX 10 Phoenix reported. It is not an isolated problem for Arizona livestock owners. In Yuma County last year, dairy goat farmer Caitlynn Mann said two separate dog attacks on her property in March killed 19 farm animals, including nine milking goats, as detailed by Arizona's Family. A pack of dogs in that same stretch also killed three 4-H animals at a neighboring property just before the county fair, and Mann attributed the broader pattern to owners abandoning dogs they could not afford to keep rather than surrendering them to a humane society, telling the outlet, “they just dump them.”
In the Yuma case, the Sheriff's Office animal-control unit was able to locate and euthanize the dogs responsible for the most recent attack, Arizona's Family reported. Mann estimated her losses at about $30,000 in lost revenue, calling it a severe setback for her goat-milking business. No comparable identification or outcome has been reported for the dogs involved in the Rainbow Valley attack.
What Arizona Law Says About Liability
Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 3-1311, a dog's owner is liable to a livestock owner for damages equal to three times the value of any livestock killed or wounded. The Arizona Department of Agriculture, whose jurisdiction covers livestock including goats, directs anyone reporting suspected livestock cruelty to contact its dispatch line or local law enforcement.
For now, Crow's Dairy is left absorbing the loss while trying to keep its restaurant relationships intact through the shutdown. Whether the operation fully reopens by the new year, as Crow hopes, remains to be seen.
