If anyone has earned the title of very good boy, it is Casper, a 20 month old Great Pyrenees from Decatur, Georgia, who single-handedly killed eight coyotes trying to prey on his owner's sheep.
A pack of 11 coyotes attacked the flock of farmer John Wierwiller last week, according to a report from a local television station, WAGA-TV. Casper defended sheep furiously in a fight that left some of his skin and part of his tail torn off, Wierwiller said.
The heroic sheepdog killed eight of the coyotes and chased the three remaining off the field of battle, but he didn't immediately come home, so Wierwiller put out a call for help in finding Casper on social media, CBS News reported. Two days later, Casper returned to the household for which he was willing to put his life on the line.
He was kinda looking at me like, Boss, stop looking at how bad I look, just take care of me, Wierwiller said. It looked like a coyote grabbed his skin and peeled it right off. Wierwiller wrote on Facebook that he took Casper to emergency veterinarians in critical condition. The vets closed an open neck wound and were hopeful that treatment would limit the potential for infection.
Casper has been a little tentative about everything since his brush with death, but the vets have said that with a bit of luck, Casper may not even need skin grafts.
Wierwiller said it was a remarkable bit of news and we are celebrating.
More than $15,000 had been raised through a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Casper's hospital bills as word of his bravery spread. Dogs don't generally do well against coyotes, whose paths they can cross in rural areas in the US and suburbs developed near woods or swamps.
It is rare for coyotes to attack humans. The media in California reported last week that a toddler was dragged outside her home by a coyote before her mother threw a rock at the animal and scared it away.