Posted on 11/28/2009 4:13:30 PM PST by missycocopuffs
Reporting from Camp Hale, Colo. - As soon as Renee Legro saw the sheep, she screamed.
The herd, 1,300 strong, has been coming for 30 years to graze in this valley on the backside of the Continental Divide. But as Colorado has become an adventure sports destination, the once-empty valley has filled with hikers, campers and mountain bikers like Legro, and she was about to tragically embody the collision of the old West with the new.
Legro, 33, screamed because she knew what came with the herd -- guard dogs. Shortly after she rolled down a hill and came upon the sheep, a dog leaped at her, locked its jaws on her hip and yanked her off her bike.
A second dog pounced as she fell. The two enormous canines, powerful enough to fend off bears, tore at her until her cries drew two campers who drove them off. The emergency-room doctor lost count of how many stitches she required.
To Legro and her husband, Steve, there was one person responsible -- Sam Robinson. One of a dwindling number of sheepherders in Colorado's mountains, Robinson, 54, turned to guard dogs a decade ago, after the state banned the use of traps to prevent mountain lions, coyotes and bears from destroying herds.
"We don't have any other option," Robinson said.
The Legros see things differently. In their years of hiking, biking and skiing the magnificent open spaces near Vail, they have fled from ranchers' dogs several times. "I cannot bring my dog up to the forest and let it run wild and attack people," said Steve Legro, 37. "Neither should anyone else."
They wanted Robinson charged with a crime.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Lord help me, my boss's boss bought land and built on property next to us in Oregon. She came home from work one day, screamed, and jumped into the bed of her cute little toy truck, whipped out her cell phone, and called our neighbor--I was at work--to come and rescue her.
There was a rattlesnake in her yard. Flynt, about 18 then, came up to 'save her'. Mind you, she had a cute little .38 in her purse, and had been captain of her college pistol team! NO! She didn't want the snake HURT! So, Flynt proceeded to capture and sack it up, and "took it a couple of miles up a logging road to release it".
Later, he told me he had "released" it, alright; he made his extra money catching & selling them.
He also said that had she bothered asking, she would have known her land was undeveloped for a reason; rattlesnakes were attracted to it, and hibernated in the rocky creek banks; none of the rest of us had those warm rock faces.
A few years before we bought there, a guy who owned 20 acres across a BLM logging road from us, laid nearly 2 acres worth of pipes and Rainbirds, and connected them to a pump he tossed into the irrigation ditch, to which he had NO water rights. He abandoned all thought of using his 20 acres, and years later, sold it...to a drug dealer, who built on it.
That was when we finally sold and moved to SD.
An organized race that didn’t manage to inform the local shepherds about what was coming? Nor give any instructions to the riders on what to do / not do when encountering local fauna? Some “organization”.
This whole story is a boatload of Fail by the woman and the bikers.
One of our favorites is a mixed pup. His father was a Belgian Tervuren. His mother was Burnese Mountain Dog and large Malamute mix. It’s cold up here for about 8 months out of the year. He doesn’t run the goats. ...just watches them a lot and will go to them if told (no real herding, yet). He’s also strong as an ox and loves pulling loads. ;-)
“Robinson would move his herd when warned of a major event at the camp, such as a religious meeting that drew tens of thousands....when they swung by to check on the herd, being tended by a hired Peruvian shepherd. They were startled to find the area overrun with mountain bikers. Vail’s recreation department had scheduled a bike race and never informed the herders.”
He was not informed of the race or he would have moved the band.
As for the Peruvians rescuing, often it is a matter of distance in the mountains on who gets to play hero. The sheep spread out to graze, the herders takes a high point to watch, and the dogs circulate among the sheep to guard.
A few years ago, actually not far from Vail, I ran into a sheep drive. Half a dozen riders on the perimeter, pickups flagging at each end, and a pair of llamas. The lead car from the other direction was a big MB with California plates, stopped dead still. As the herd passed them and the llamas approached, the woman driver opened her window to get a better look at the llamas. One poked its’ head in the window and spit a giant glob right in her face. The hysteria and screams were delicious!
About a month ago we were deer hunting way up next to Oregon in Nevada. There was a herd of about 5,000 sheep being watched over by a Great Pyrenees. He was magnificent to watch at work. Very impressive animal.
Yep.
Now that this rancher had to get rid of his dogs, he lost 26% of his herd last year.
As I said, I lived in Vail, for ten years, and I have also ridden Camp Hale. It is an area that is part of the Vail Town mountain bike series, which is sponsored by the Vail Recreation District, not a rogue band of tattooed, body pierced, renegade, maggot infested liberals.
I am also aware of the rampant use of illegal aliens in the Vail area, and apparently, FO is too, but he applies selective logic for some reason.
We are told by Robinson that he uses “professional Peruvian sheep herders,” but curiously, the reporter never talks to the Peruvian, or verifies anything about him, and he is nowhere to be seen when the dogs are ripping a woman apart for her crime of wanting to finish a Vail Town organized bike race. Additionally, his “professional Peruvian sheepherders” were nowhere to be seen in the days leading up to the race when the course was marked out, or even the day of the race when the herd they are hired to watch began to be threatened by evil citizen predators on mountain bikes? Robinson says he didn’t know about the race, but he also says he found the race going on when he dropped by. He also said another of his dogs had bit someone five days earlier. He has also admitted to being antagonistic toward people who want to enjoy their access to public land that he uses, too. Which might explain why he said if he knew the race was going on he would have moved his herd, but he when he found the race going on he didn’t move his herd.
So according to you all, a woman who participated in a town sponsored race, got off easy, and really deserved to suffer even more serious injuries than she did, or even be killed, and if the Great Pyrenees, or Pit Bulls couldn’t do the job, mountain lions should have because “she screamed” at an inappropriate time?
At least he was found guilty, and now, thanks to his hostility towards innocent civilian mountain biker/hikers, and his incompetence in finding the race going on, that if he knew was going on he would have moved his herd, but he didn’t...now no longer uses sheep dogs and is losing sheep to predators. Guess that means he’s going to have to leave the area, or quit sheep herding?
Oh, the nerve of that evil citizen using public land, and screaming when she shouldn’t have.
What is really frightening is that people like you all probably tell other reasonable people that you are “conservative.”
She was an idiot. Your conception of what it is like in the mountains isn’t too swift either. Just the kind of person that needs a license to step off of the pavement.
The page noted that “the dog is large and naturally commands respect” - an understatement if there ever was one on the web. The coat - curly, fuzzy and thick seems to be the trade mark.
And they, as a breed, have been guarding sheep since the 1500 in Hungary. Woof!
As someone who has lived in Vail, and mountain biked Camp Hale, which is one of the races in the Vail Town mountain bike series, this is an issue of access. Personally, as citizen of a constitutional republic, I put the lady’s right to access above that of the sheep herder, who has, more likely than not, hired illegal aliens to watch the herd. My sympathy is with the woman who suffered severe injuries for the crime of riding her mountain bike, not with the sheep owner and his illegal alien herders who were no where to be seen while she was being attacked by the two Great Pyrenees.
Perhaps you should have started out by posting your last post instead of this first one that is clearly wrong and assuming. It seems as you were called on your assumptions you have tried to justify them but they were just assumptions. Had you been on this specific ride you may have more insight as to what exactly happened but it seems you weren't.
“We are told by Robinson that he uses “professional Peruvian sheep herders,” but curiously, the reporter never talks to the Peruvian, or verifies anything about him, and he is nowhere to be seen when the dogs are ripping a woman apart for her crime of wanting to finish a Vail Town organized bike race. Additionally, his “professional Peruvian sheepherders” were nowhere to be seen in the days leading up to the race when the course was marked out, or even the day of the race when the herd they are hired to watch began to be threatened by evil citizen predators on mountain bikes? Robinson says he didn’t know about the race, but he also says he found the race going on when he dropped by. He also said another of his dogs had bit someone five days earlier. He has also admitted to being antagonistic toward people who want to enjoy their access to public land that he uses, too. Which might explain why he said if he knew the race was going on he would have moved his herd, but he when he found the race going on he didn’t move his herd.”
A grazing allotment is controlled by the local National Forest or BLM office. You are allowed to graze so many animals between certain dates. It sounds like the sheepman would move his bands to accommodate local functions going on, but I would bet he doesn’t subscribe to Mountain Bike Weekly to keep up with the upcoming events. If the organizers or the local government offices would have alerted him, he would have moved out of the way, like they said he had done in the past.
When he got there, the race was going on or almost over, why move the sheep then?
All the Peruvian herders I have dealt with a fairly shy until you get to know them. Most of them prefer to deal with their boss and avoid anyone else.
As for your continued jibe of “professional Peruvian sheep herders”, they are Peruvian, they are sheepherders, and they are paid for their job. Sounds like that is exactly what they should be called. These guys grew up herding in the mountains of Peru and it is what they know. Some cheap illegal who managed to get across the border from Chihuahua doesn’t make a good herder at all.
>>near as I can tell the dog was a Komondor
I came across a reference to that breed in the last few years (perhaps here), and ended up reading up on them a good bit. Truly a neat looking breed. I’d love to meet one.
Because she screamed?
Thank you for re-posting it. I stand by it, but I admit I am surprised at the lack of compassion for another human whose only crime was she screamed, I guess.
Yes, I am questioning your faith in the criminal’s description of them as being “professional Peruvian sheep herders” here in the country legally. For some reason, these “professional Peruvian sheep herders” that you seem to have so much faith in, were nowhere to be seen in the days leading up to and of the day of the race, or to call off the dogs when the evil, violent, criminal, yuppie, stupid, girl, woman was being ravaged by the dogs. Now, Mr Robinson is losing sheep to predators because he didn’t learn a lesson from his dog biting someone five days earlier...gee, you think his “professional Peruvian sheep herders” were working for him then, too? Seems like Mr. Robinson got the kind of help he paid for...and you all think the woman is stupid?
Yes, because she screamed and ran headlong into a flock of sheep on a bicycle. Too stupid to venture beyond a landscaped back yard.
But, good natured once you are properly introduced. Certainly a working dog.
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