Battle rages in Colorado over sheepherder's guard dogs that attacked a cyclist

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unle...sheepherder-gu
ard-dogs-bicyclist.html

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.

This fall, on a blustery day 14 months after the attack, Robinson drove
through the high mountain valley in his beaten Ford F-250 pickup. A
rifle leaned against the dashboard, and an empty can of Rockstar energy
drink sat in the cup holder.

With the perpetually tan face of someone who spends his time outside,
Robinson explained how his way of life was under attack.

"It's the suburban mentality -- they think their milk comes out of a
plastic jug, they think their meat comes out of a container," he said.
"They don't realize you have to live like a Third World person to
produce meat in the United States."

A herder who can trace sheepherding back generations in his family, he
grew up helping his father run sheep on the Flat Tops, 10,000-foot-high
plateaus northwest of here. Robinson's three children learned to walk at
a pass at 12,000 feet -- on 25,000 acres where the National Forest
Service permits his herd to graze each summer.

At the center of the land lies Camp Hale, formerly an Army base, now a
huge draw for summertime recreation. Robinson would move his herd when
warned of a major event at the camp, such as a religious meeting that
drew tens of thousands. But the Lycra-clad vacation crowd irks him.

"My dad warned me, this state was going to be turned into one big
playground," Robinson said. He sees sheepherding as environmentally
virtuous, unlike the recreation industry, which has filled his beloved
mountains with bike shops, hotels and spas -- and the sewers and
electrical lines to support them.

"You're producing a very high quality product from fresh air, sunshine
and rain," he said of raising sheep. The recreation industry, he said,
"produces smiles and giggles but not much else."

Robinson revels in his unusual lifestyle. "It's almost like time travel.
During the day I'm doing the same thing they were doing 6,000 years
ago," he said. "Then we go to Denver and see the opera, watch planes
land at the airport."

Robinson and his wife, Shari, were returning from a trip to the Midwest
on July 9, 2008, 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.

The Robinsons figured their dogs wouldn't be a problem, though five days
earlier one, Lucy, bit a jogger and was taken away by animal control. It
was the first time, the couple said, any of their dogs behaved
aggressively toward a person.

The Robinsons ordered the remaining two -- Tiny, 9, and Pastor, 11 --
tied up during daylight to avoid another incident. The race was set to
conclude before sundown.

Though not trained to attack people, the dogs, both white Great
Pyrenees, were fierce protectors of Robinson's herd. Pastor's muzzle
bore scars from skirmishes with coyotes. Tiny once chased a mountain
lion up a cedar tree.

For Renee Legro, the July 9 event was to be her first race in years. A
Chicago native who fell in love with Colorado on family ski vacations,
she moved near Vail after getting her degree in speech pathology in
2000.

She married Steve Legro, a fugitive from Boston's urban sprawl. They
hike and bike, but in outdoor-crazed Colorado they are more a normal,
middle-class couple than extreme adventurers.

Caring for their daughter, Megan, born in 2007, had kept Renee off a
mountain bike until she and a friend signed up for the race. "This was
going to be my one big night out," she said.

During the race, she was beset by problems with her bike, first a
snapped chain, then a flat tire. By the time she fixed the flat, the sun
was setting and the race largely over. Renee could have returned to the
start with a race organizer but decided to finish the course.

She was almost done when she descended the hill and saw the sheep in her
path.

Eagle County animal control officers told the Robinsons there would be
no criminal charges. Tiny and Pastor were quarantined and could never be
let loose again, so the Robinsons requested they be destroyed. They
asked their insurers to contact Renee and figured that was the end of
it.

But the Legros were outraged. They felt the Robinsons weren't showing
remorse and heard -- inaccurately, the Robinsons say -- that they were
still using guard dogs even after the attack.

The Legros spent weeks scouring state laws and collecting stories of
other recreationists threatened by ranchers' dogs. Finally, they
persuaded Eagle County Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert to treat the case like
any dog attack. He charged Robinson with a single misdemeanor --
ownership of a dangerous dog.

"Unfortunately," Hurlbert said, "his dogs committed a crime."

In Colorado, owners of a dog that protects livestock are exempt from
civil liability for bites. There is no exemption in criminal law. To
convict Robinson, prosecutors merely had to prove his dogs bit Renee.

Alarmed, Robinson decided he couldn't get new dogs to protect his herd.
"I would never touch another of them, not the way that law reads," he
said. "No matter how good a dog is, you never know."

But free of the protective dogs, Robinson's herd was raided by
predators. He lost 26% of his sheep in the last year. His sense of
victimization grew. First the state had outlawed the traps that kept his
herd safe. Now, he said, it was taking away his last line of defense.

In September, Robinson appeared in Eagle County Municipal Court and
argued that other dogs, not his, could have been responsible for the
attack. But after Renee recounted the mauling in agonizing detail, the
six-member jury convicted Robinson at the end of a one-day trial.

At the sentencing in October, the Robinsons, including Sam's 87-year-old
father, and their supporters sat on the left side of the courtroom. The
Legros -- and Renee's parents and brother -- sat on the right.

Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Sullivan tried to promote a
reconciliation, or at least a truce, but that was not to happen. "These
two sides of the room," she said, "don't have any understanding of what
the other side has gone through."

The Legros spoke first. Tearing up, Renee Legro said she had to close
her fledgling speech pathology business after losing a month to
hospitalization and weeks after that to depression and insecurity.

She faces more surgery and has trouble walking, and she is terrified
around dogs -- including the family's 16-year-old pet, Sarah. "I'm not
as confident as I used to be," she told the judge. "I'm not as strong as
I used to be."

Legro asked for jail time, but Sullivan was clearly reluctant. "Dogs end
up being the last protection the herd can have," the judge said.

Sullivan asked Robinson if he had thought of moving his herd out of Camp
Hale. Robinson, who was forbidden by his insurance company from
admitting to the attack, said he was required to graze there under his
deal with the Forest Service. If he had been warned of the race, he
reiterated, he could have moved them and avoided what he called "this
whole horrific thing."

Sullivan asked the Legros if that changed their stance.

It didn't. "No one seems to get the idea that these dogs need to be
taught not to bite someone," Steve Legro said.

Sullivan spared Robinson jail -- he could have received up to 18 months
-- but ordered him to perform 500 hours of community service and to
donate $500 to charity.

Each side left the courtroom unhappy. "This is a Sunday school teacher
who has no record who's suddenly a criminal," Shari Robinson said of her
husband.

The Legros said they had been torn about asking for jail time but felt
that Robinson remained unrepentant. "He is so focused on his right to be
there that he couldn't bring himself to see what it is like on the other
side," Renee Legro said.

The couple returned to their home in Eagle, a middle-class community
largely inhabited by families priced out of Vail. They live in a new
two-story house in a development designed to resemble the Victorian and
Craftsman-style homes that speckle these mountain towns.

The small subdivision and its nearby park are filled with young families
walking their dogs.




Comments (4)
I'm sure that this story and the accompanying one must enrage other
readers as much as it enrages me. A yuppie couple move to Colorado and
the wife foolishly strays into a sheep herd because she can't ride a
bicycle properly and has lost track of the others in her group. The
sheep herd and the dogs were supposed to be there - Renee Legro was not
supposed to be there. Because of her idiotic behavior, two beautiful
mountain dogs, already scarred because of their encounters with mountain
lions and coyotes, are out of business and perhaps dead. Further, the
lack of guard dogs has led to the death of many sheep to predators. Way
to go, Renee! Go back to the east coast and decrease the Colorado yuppie
population.

Posted by: john c malone | November 28, 2009 at 07:26 PM

IT WOULD SEEM TO ME THAT THAT ORGANIZERS OF THE BIKE RACE AND THE FOREST
SERVICE SHARE CULPABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY TO BOTH THE ROBINSON AND
THE LEGROS FAMILIES IN THIS INCIDENT.

IF THE FOREST SERVICE IS GOING TO PROMOTE MULTIPLE USE FOR GOVERNMENT
LAND THEN THEY SHOULD TAKE STEPS IN ADVANCE TO PROTECT INTERESTS OF BOTH
GRAZING PERMITTEES AND RECREATIONAL USERS.

THE RACE ORGANIZERS ALSO SHOULD HAVE BEEN FULLY AWARE OF THE PRESENCE OF
GRAZING HERDS AND GUARD DOGS, AS THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME SUCH
INCIDENTS HAVE OCCURRED.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN USFS, RACE ORGANIZERS, RACE PARTICIPANTS, AND
GRAZING PERMITTEES MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED THIS UNFORTUNATE SITUATION.

Posted by: Mike Ellsbury | November 28, 2009 at 07:45 PM

Who is at fault when the dogs are doing their job protecting the sheep
from a rider hurling forward toward them at predator speed? Dogs are not
toys and working dogs are suppose to do their job. How are they to know
that this predator was only intending to ride her bike. These people who
live in suburbia and cross into the wild world where bears, cougars and
wolves roam need to understand that the sheep need protection. The
animal rights zealots have made the world think humans can live with
such predators and have sweet little cozy dogs as well. Bears are
overunning New Jersey, coyotes the west, cougars have attacked and eaten
several bikers this year and 3.5 million feral wild pigs weighing over a
thousand pounds are tearing up the land and attacking people all across
the western states. But the animal rights people won't allow the
conservationists do their job. Now this couple who think they have the
right to hurl themselves into Mr. Robinson's sheep with impunity in this
back country full of predators can get his dogs killed and have him in
jail just to punish him for being realistic about how the wilderness
really works. These are the people who feed this country. They know the
real dangers of the wild back country and that they can lose every
animal and their lives to the predators. I am very sorry she was
attacked, but she was very aware that such an attack could occur. These
are dogs that have to fight off predators and rustlers and they are bred
to do so without having a human around so that the herd is fully
protected at all times. They did not go looking for her she drove full
speed into the herd. She says she knew from the moment she did what
would happen. She is fully responsible for her actions along with the
agency that did not notify Mr. Robinson. This is exactly why you cannot
charge someone with a civil suit who has a working dog. Just how is this
dog suppose to tell rustlers from bike riders? Just how are these
animals suppose to know you are just a bike rider and not a predator?
Now we are suppose to train our dogs to not chase cats, squirrels and
people who look and act like predators. This Disneyland fantasy of
talking pigs, dogs, and horses has gone too far. Expectations of what an
animal can do is what is driving up shelter drop offs. Studies show that
it is people's unrealistic expectations that a dog should understand
everything they say or always be trainable. Dogs are not people and this
is the problem with the urbanites who move into wild country today or
try to tell farmers, ranchers and other professionals how to deal with
their animals. This is not Disneyland nor some fairy tale world. In
Africa where people are fairly close to the land they know the lion will
eat you and their dogs are for protection from both people and other
animals. These two dogs who had discharged their duties all of their
lives are now dead. Is this family showing any remorse over that? No,
they destroy a man's living, his reputation, and now they want him to
pay with his life for something she did knowing the risks. Don't ride
your bikes in the wild high country if you don't want to take the risk
of running into such situations. She entered what the dogs thought to be
their home threatening their family and she expects them to sit and do
nothing. She knew this could happen and yet she went out riding her bike
in terroritory just like the people who think they can run across the
freeway without getting hurt. This is misplaced anger on her part and
bad justice from the judge who should know better. We do not charge a
driver who hits someone who runs out into the street knowing before hand
they can be hit by a car. She rode her bike out into the wild high
country knowing these dogs are out there to protect the sheep from
predators. She is lucky it was only the dogs as she could just have
easily been attacked by a cougar as people have been in California on
suburban bike trails. America wake up you cannot live in fantasy land
and we can no longer afford to allow animal rights zealots to put our
lives at risk by preventing conservation management. If the traps had
been allowed as they were in the past then the ranchers would not have
to resort to the dogs. You cannot train a dog to make decisions. No dog
despite the Disney stories can decide who is a rustler and who is not.
They respond to the actions presented to them at the moment. She
threatened their family and they responded. She invaded their home they
did not invade her home. She knowingly ran across a busy freeway at
highspeed expecting to not get hurt and now she wants to sue the drivers
who hit her. This is not how the world works and judge shame on you for
giving into her illogical emotions and blaming this man who is totally
in the right and has the good common sense to know it.


Posted by: Dr. Rosset | November 30, 2009 at 06:49 AM

Excellent comment Dr. Rosset!
The 2 dogs, both older, have been put down by the owner as an apology to
the Legros. It is not enough for them.....they wanted jail time! He
didn't have to as they were doing what they were supposed to
do....protect their sheep. The Legros felt the Robinsons weren't showing
remorse. What did they want for "remorse"....tears, a verbal/written
apology, payment of the hospital bill (altho the article doesn't say,
his insurance may have taken care of it)? A ticket for the ownership of
a dangerous dog should NEVER have been issued. Since Dist. Atty. Mark
Hurlbert (yuppie type, I figure) felt the dogs were dangerous, it should
have resulted in a set fine ONLY that was paid by mailing the fine in.
Wanting someone to go to jail over an unfortunate incident THAT WAS
CAUSED BY RENEE, is pure out and out Chicago/east coast mentality! What
they don't understand is the "Code of the West" and "taciturn manner" of
people that have many generations of being raised in the west.

The "Code of the West" started when hardy pioneers moved into the west,
where there were no laws, were bound by these unwritten rules that
centered on hospitality, fair play, loyalty, and respect for the land.
Ramon Adams, a Western historian, explained it best in his 1969 book,
'The Cowman and His Code of Ethics', saying, in part:

"Back in the days when the cowman with his herds made a new frontier,
there was no law on the range. Lack of written law made it necessary for
him to frame some of his own, thus developing a rule of behavior which
became known as the "Code of the West." These homespun laws, being
merely a gentleman’s agreement to certain rules of conduct for survival,
were never written into statutes, but were respected everywhere on the
range."

Some Codes of the West that are still in play out he
~A cowboy doesn't talk much; he saves his breath for breathing.
~Do not practice ingratitude.
~Honesty is absolute - your word is your bond, a handshake is more
binding than a contract. ~Consideration for others is central to the
code, such as: Don't stir up dust around the chuckwagon, don't wake up
the wrong man for herd duty, etc. ~A cowboy always helps someone in
need, even a stranger or an enemy. ~Real cowboys are modest. A braggert
who is "all gurgle and no guts" is not tolerated. ~Don't inquire into a
person's past. Take the measure of a man for what he is today. ~Respect
the land and the environment by not smoking in hazardous fire areas,
disfiguring rocks, trees, or other natural areas. ~Live by the Golden
Rule.

From the article: "Renee could have returned to the start with a race
organizer but decided to finish the course." This indicates to me a
"it's about me" attitude....I haven't raced since my daughter was born.
I want to do this race....Well, good for you, go for it! Unfortunately,
you weren't prepared by having your bike in top condition and thinking
the situation thru. Rather than returning to the start area, you say to
yourself, "But, but I want to run this race. I want to finish. I'll do
it." Did you give any thought that you could have been attacked by a
wild animal? No you didn't.....it's all about me. Instead of being
attacked by a wild animal, you end up injured by guard dogs doing their
duty. Grow up Legros or return to where you came from.

Posted by: ID DVM | December 04, 2009 at 08:11 PM


--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York's
million dollar tax evasion. Charles B. Rangel is still under
"investigation" by a "closed door" House Ethics Committee.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unle...bicyclist.html

=V= What a horrible travesty of pseudojournalism. The writer
invites us to consider this as a "collision of the old West with
the new," a sheepherder's supposedly traditional way of life
(6,000 years are mentioned) under attack from suburbanites who
are, to use the inevitable tiresome stereotype, wearing Lycra.

=v= Reading more closely we find that we're talking about
a National Forest, where the "tradition" dates back not to
Biblical times, not even back to the "old West," but merely
to the 1980s, when James Watt was Secretary of the Interior
and permitted grazing on public lands for private benefit.

=v= As predicted, this had an immediate negative impact on what
little wildlife remains in the area, especially when grazers
started using traps and poisons. In this article, though, a
ban on these devastating measures is spun to justify the
sheepherder's use of vicious guard dogs.
_Jym_

P.S.: The person who posted this, one Leroy N. Soetoro, treats
us to this truly idiotic header field:

Organization: The next war will be fought against Socialists, in America and the EU.

Pretty ironic for a story so sympathetic to some guy sponging
off public resources. I have also trimmed ca.environment and
alt.politics.obama from followups, since this has nothing to do
with either of those newsgroups (except, of course, within the
tinfoil-capped confines of a teabagging wingnut's brain).

On 2009-12-24, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unle...sheepherder-gu
ard-dogs-bicyclist.html

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.

"It's the suburban mentality -- they think their milk comes out of a
plastic jug, they think their meat comes out of a container," he said.
"They don't realize you have to live like a Third World person to
produce meat in the United States."

"My dad warned me, this state was going to be turned into one big
playground," Robinson said. He sees sheepherding as environmentally
virtuous, unlike the recreation industry, which has filled his beloved
mountains with bike shops, hotels and spas -- and the sewers and
electrical lines to support them.

The Robinsons figured their dogs wouldn't be a problem, though five days
earlier one, Lucy, bit a jogger and was taken away by animal control. It
was the first time, the couple said, any of their dogs behaved
aggressively toward a person.


This moron (Robinson) oughta rot in jail for a long time.

One of the first things you teach any dog, *especially* a
working dog, is not to be human-aggressive. Even guard dogs
should not be human-aggressive except on command or in very
specific circumstances (like guarding a specific fenced area
that people can't possibly enter unintentionally).

If you're out on public lands and you've got a dog off-leash
and it goes and savages a human, *you* have behaved in a
criminally negligent way.

And yes, I've traveled a very large number of miles in the
backcountry with German Shepherds. I know how to handle
working dogs.

Cheers, Wolf.

General Debacle writes:
That sure told everybody which way your dick swings...
to the loony left.

=v= That I dress left may be of interest to my tailor,
but it's no business of some anonymous Usenet coward
with a penchant for adding alt.politics.homosexuality
to a thread. Bugger off.
_Jym_