A pack of wild dogs has been putting residents of a small northeastern North Carolina town on high alert.
Authorities in Scotland Neck on Sunday announced plans to tranquilize the dogs. By Monday, they announced that they had captured the leader of the pack and another dog in the town that’s about 85 miles northeast of Raleigh.
According to a Facebook post from the Scotland Neck Police Department, the dogs have been “particularly troubling for many residents.” They’ve been terrorizing the community for nearly two years by rummaging through trash, wrecking abandoned houses, and chasing and attacking pets, Scotland Neck Police Chief Tommy Parker told USA TODAY Monday afternoon.
“The reality is that many cats, chickens, and small pets have been lost to these dogs,” Parker said.
The department has worked with Halifax County Animal Control to track the dogs, who they believe are abandoned pets who have adapted to survive on their own. The pack was initially made up of about eight dogs. As of Monday afternoon, police think there are only about three left.
The alpha dog, a “highly aggressive” pit mix with a history of killing small animals, was captured around 1 p.m. Monday, and a second dog in the group was captured at 2:30 p.m. using a tranquilizer rifle, Chief Parker told USA TODAY. He added that two other dogs were captured about a month ago.
Police: Remaining dogs still need to be captured
According to authorities, animal control officers and other personnel have tried multiple times to capture the dogs, including setting live traps for them.
“These are wire cages with doors that fall when the dog enters the cage,” Parker told USA TODAY. “These traps are placed in an area where the dogs frequent and use bait such as food to attract them. The traps are checked frequently to avoid distress to the animals.”
Parker said in a statement that “the remaining dogs shouldn’t be too much trouble going forward, but they still need to be taken out of the town.”
He said that Halifax County Animal Control set up more traps around town.
