Longtime Hailey resident Kim Anderson was attacked and bitten by a sheep guard dog last week about eight miles west of Hailey on Deer Creek Road. Two guard dogs belonging to Dennis Kowitz of Burley were quarantined for 10 days to rule out the possibility of rabies infection.
Anderson was treated at St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center in Ketchum for five puncture wounds on his left arm and released. Yesterday, Kowitz' dogs, one of which bit Anderson, were released from quarantine. One of them was put back to work. The other will be kept in a kennel until spring.
"This is a public lands issue," Anderson said. "There are a lot more people out there hiking and biking these days. If a dog is going to attack you unprovoked, somebody else might not be as lucky the next time. If these dogs can't distinguish between a wild animal and a mountain biker, that makes for a dangerous situation."
The dog attack occurred in the Wolftone Creek drainage, which runs south from Deer Creek Road eight miles west of Highway 75. Anderson said he was riding up Wolftone Creek on Forest Service Road 102 when a large, white-and-yellow dog ran downhill at him.
"I thought it was a lost or stray dog," he said. "When it started barking at me, I yelled and pointed my finger at it. There was no one around, and I didn't see any sheep."
Anderson said the dog moved away. He rode farther and stopped for lunch about half a mile farther up Wolftone Creek. He then turned back toward deer Creek Road and was soon approached by three large, barking dogs.
"There was no one nearby to call the dogs off," he said. "I got off my bike and started swinging it around to protect myself. That is when one of them bit me."
Anderson made it back to town where he filed a report with the Blaine County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's Deputy Fabrizio Lizano said he drove to the scene of the attack two times in two days. Each time the dogs barked outside of his patrol car. He reported seeing no sheepherders.
Ketchum Ranger District technician Bill Whitaker located the owner of the flock, Dennis Kowitz, and had him quarantine two of the three guard dogs. After 10 days the dogs were released.
"It's a pretty rare occurrence for people to be bitten by guard dogs," Whitaker said, "This is only the second time in the last 20 years that I know of."
Guard dogs were introduced to the Ketchum Ranger District 20 years ago as a non-lethal means of controlling predators. Before that time, herders would often shoot and kill predators, which included bears, cougars and coyotes. In recent years, sheepherders have also had to contend with wolves, which were reintroduced into the area in 1995.
Kowitz said on Monday that his dogs were watching a herd of about 800 sheep up Wolftone Creek when Anderson was bitten. The flock was moving from the Warm Springs area west of Ketchum to lower country to the south and had traveled hundreds of miles over the course of the summer. He said the need for guard dogs is reduced as the flock moves southward due to less risk from predators.
"The last time we had anything like this happen was 15 years ago when a hiker was chased by one of our dogs," he said. "It is their natural instinct to chase something that is moving. The best thing to do is stop and shout at them if they are barking at you. Maybe it is the wolves that are making them this way."
"These dogs are really not much of a match for a pack of wolves, but at least they can alert the herders to trouble. We couldn't survive without them."
Kowitz said 30 of his sheep have been lost to wolves this summer. About 12 have been lost to coyotes.
The Idaho Fish and Game Department reports that coyotes continue to kill far more sheep in Idaho than do wolves. In 2005, the most recent year for which the department has statistics, 95 percent of sheep predation was attributed to coyotes. Last year, wolves killed 170 sheep in the state.
Kowitz agreed to reimburse Anderson this week for about $200 in medical bills.
