{"id":97935,"date":"2025-07-27T23:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T23:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97935\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T23:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T23:34:12","slug":"guard-llama-larry-killed-in-dog-attack-at-hobby-farm-near-geraldton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97935\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Guard llama’ Larry killed in dog attack at hobby farm near Geraldton"},"content":{"rendered":"

After spending more than 20 years loyally guarding a flock of about 150 sheep, Larry the llama met a gruesome end in the jaws of one or more roaming dogs.<\/p>\n

WARNING: This article contains an image that some readers might find distressing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the day Larry was mauled to death, his owner, Laura Elson, found four dogs running amok on her hobby farm, east of Geraldton.<\/p>\n

But the dogs were not wild \u2014 they were domestic pets, and at least three had registered owners. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On the day of the attack last month, Ms Elson first realised something was wrong when she caught a pair of border collies on her farm.<\/p>\n

She called City of Greater Geraldton rangers and, accompanied by one, went to check on her flock.<\/p>\n

“We found a freshly dead lamb and a limping ewe,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Elson said.\"Dog<\/p>\n

Paw prints in the sand where Larry the llama was found dead. (Supplied: Laura Elson)<\/p>\n

Shortly after the rangers left with the border collies, Ms Elson went back to the paddock for a more thorough check, which is when she found a third dog.<\/p>\n

“I loaded that one up, then I located a fourth dog \u2026 loaded that one up, and then I called the rangers back again to come and collect the other two dogs,” she said.<\/p>\n

It was then that she noticed one had blood on its fur.<\/p>\n

The ranger accompanied her to Larry’s paddock, where they found him deceased.<\/p>\n

A devastated Ms Elson said llamas only lived to between 15 and 20 years, but Larry “was a bit of a record breaker”.<\/p>\n

Initially bought in a pair, her beloved pet had outlived his paddock mate, who died of old age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Larry was quite content, as long as he had sheep company, to keep on doing his job by himself,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.\"Close<\/p>\n

Larry the llama was found deceased in his paddock with bite marks. (Supplied: Laura Elson)<\/p>\n

Lack of prosecution ‘ridiculous’<\/p>\n

Three of the dogs were returned by rangers to their owners, while one has not been claimed.<\/p>\n

The owners who could be identified were issued with fines for not containing their pets or failing to ensure they had collars, with the penalties averaging about $500 for each owner.<\/p>\n

Ms Elson is angry that no one has been held responsible for the attack on Larry or her livestock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, the rangers said that they can’t prosecute,” Ms Elson said.<\/p>\n

“It would be passed out in court as beyond reasonable doubt because I didn’t visually see the dogs attacking him.”<\/p>\n

Ms Elson said rangers should have more power to declare dogs as dangerous.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s ridiculous,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I find four dogs and a freshly dead llama and freshly dead lamb, and yet that’s not enough evidence for the dogs to be held accountable or their owners, even more so, to be held accountable.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rangers ‘distressed’ over cases<\/p>\n

City of Greater Geraldton ranger coordinator Mark Lambert said they still considered the case to be “open”.<\/p>\n

However, prosecution was difficult in situations such as these because court cases had to meet criminal standards of proof, he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We work within the legislation of the Dog Act of 1976,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That puts us into a criminal framework and any potential prosecutions, in a Magistrate’s Court.<\/p>\n

“We have to operate under evidence rules, and that evidence that we have to provide needs to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt.”<\/p>\n

\"Llama<\/p>\n

Larry the llama had outlived his pack mate but was content with the company of sheep. (Supplied: Laura Elson)<\/p>\n

Mr Lambert said such attacks were upsetting for his team, particularly when they could not resolve a case.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the rangers are animal lovers, and that’s why they do this job,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“They do get very distressed when they cannot provide the level of service that they want to provide and cannot bring a positive resolution to an incident, particularly with the dog attacks when we’ve got stock that are being killed or badly injured.”<\/p>\n

Mr Lambert said the city averaged about 15 reports a month of attacks on people, pets or livestock, most of which could be prevented.<\/p>\n

“It really is a big call-out to our community to please check your fencing, make sure that it’s good, that it can contain your dog appropriately,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Keep keep your gates closed. Make sure you know where your dog is. Make sure it’s contained, and we can really make a big impact on these dog attack figures.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After spending more than 20 years loyally guarding a flock of about 150 sheep, Larry the llama met…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8991,4740,64104,24655,64105,64102,64101,50,12097,64103,9580,8632],"class_list":{"0":"post-97935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-city-of-geraldton","11":"tag-dog","12":"tag-dog-act","13":"tag-guardian","14":"tag-llama","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-sheep","18":"tag-stock","19":"tag-wa-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114927820076220861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}