Karen Corcoran-Watkins has a mystery to solve that hits too close to home.
On Thursday morning, she woke to find three of her beloved pygmy goats dead. That came after two of her goats died Wednesday and another earlier this week.
She suspects someone spread an undetermined poison on her property to kill prairie dogs and in the process managed to kill all of her goats – Snow, Unique, Midnight, Pattie, Jolie and Lucky.
“I’m sure they were poisoned,” she said. “Let me put it to you this way: Our prairie dog population has declined tremendously this week. I used to be able to see a lot of them running around. Now, I can’t count 10 of them.
“Someone took it upon themselves to eliminate the prairie dogs on our property without thinking that a goat will eat anything.”
Corcoran-Watkins, along with her husband, Bob Watkins; her son, Barry Cohen; and her 92-year-old mother, LuDeen Corcoran; run Dove Hill Haven, a rescue for abused animals, on their property south of Mancos near Cedar Grove Cemetery.
The family of animal lovers opened their haven for rescue animals about a year ago, and now the suspected poisonings have forced them to close off access to their 5-acre pasture to the 23 dogs they have at the haven, many of whom were red-tagged for euthanasia in Texas.
“We used to let them out to run around. Now, I’m terrified to do that,” Corcoran-Watkins said.
The dogs – some cancer survivors, some deaf, some blind, some used as bait dogs to train pit bulls – are now confined to a 4,300-square-foot fenced yard.
“We have a mission of love. We love animals, and you can’t call us a shelter because the animals never leave,” Corcoran-Watkins said. “We have enough acreage where we can do this, and when my husband retired, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Besides the dogs, Dove Hill Haven has 18 feral cats, which have been spayed and neutered, and one llama. The goats were pets, raised by the family and not part of the menagerie of rescued animals.
“They all get along. The dogs don’t bother the cats. They take care of each other,” Corcoran-Watkins said.
She said the prairie dogs moved into their pasture over the past two years because they have been unable to flood irrigate because of the drought, but she said the rodents would have left their 5-acre pasture once they started irrigating again.
She doesn’t believe any of her neighbors are responsible for the suspected poisonings because none of them objected to the opening of Dove Hill Haven. Also, she said the closest family has three children, who are frequent play companions with the dogs.
Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said the incident is under investigation, and he confirmed the family suspects their goats were poisoned.
Corcoran-Watkins said she plans to take the body of one of the dead goats to a veterinarian Friday for blood tests.
She spent most of Thursday burying the other five of her pet pygmy goats.
“All our goats were killed. Every single one of them,” Corcoran-Watkins said. “Some of them were bottle babies. They were born in the winter and their mothers wouldn’t nurse them. They were all pets.
“I don’t understand why people would do this, but I guess it’s not for me to understand.”
parmijo@durangoherald.com
