Night marauder upsets rural resident near New Ulm

Family's goat killed, rabbits missing after attack by unknown predator

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Debbie Sanford of rural Courtland tried to fight back the tears when she called The Journal Saturday afternoon.

To say the least, Saturday was a shocking day for the whole family.

Debbie and her husband John aren't sure what it was, but something or someone killed their pet goat and stole five rabbits from their cages late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

The goat was found dead by her husband John when he went outside to do chores Saturday morning. The goat had large puncture wounds two inches apart on its broken neck just outside it's pen Saturday morning.

Wooden parts of the five rabbit cages had large gouges on them. Some of the cages were knocked over and broken.

"The goat was our family pet," Debbie said, her voiced choked with emotion. "My five-year-old boy and our other kids played with it like it was a dog."

John Sanford was also mystified by the damage.

"At first, I thought it was coyotes," he said. "Then I got a phone call from the Struss dairy farm telling me I should carefully watch my livestock because people were tracking what was believed to be a cougar."

A veterinarian visited the Sanford place Saturday morning. He didn't say what caused the situation, but said it "looked suspicious."

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Greg Abraham of the New Ulm Regional DNR office visited the Sanfords Saturday. He took photos of the goat and rabbit cages. There were no tracks to check since it rained after the fatal visit, Abraham said.

His next stop was the Strusses.

"They told me DNR people visited them last week that told them they were looking for a cougar between Judson and New Ulm," Abraham said.

As of late Saturday afternoon, Abraham was calling DNR officials at home but was not able to verify a local cougar search.

Debbie Sanford said Abraham told her he would sit in his truck on the Sanford property Saturday night, in case the "night visitor" returned.

"They don't think it's a coyote or raccoons. They don't know what it is," she said.

Meanwhile, Con Christianson, furbearer specialist for the DNR, verified that a cougar was recently photographed by a motion-sensing camera while roaming the Minnesota River bottom land in Savage, according to Saturday's Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Cargill employee Kerry Kammann placed the camera in a tree near a recently killed deer and got several clear photos of the Cougar. Last fall, a hunter told the DNR he saw a cougar near the river in Burnsville.

Kammann said the cougar tracks were as large as a Whopper burger and that it left marks on the neck and face of the deer.

Cougars were also spotted in Maple Grove and Plymouth several years ago. They are protected by law and rarely attack humans, Christianson said.