Dog chases, kills up to six sheep in one day, leaving Redmond-area family devastated

Authorities investigating four livestock attacks this year; domestic dog, not wild animals suspected

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon State Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office are investigating livestock attacks in an area north of Redmond.

The Miller family lost six sheep this week in the most recent livestock attack in Lake Park Estate.

Authorities say there have been four attacks since January, and they believe a domestic dog is responsible.

The Millers, who live on Varnish Road, want the dog found, to spare other families such devastating losses.

“It's very much an emotional loss for us," Francis Blake Miller said Thursday.

"This is something we wanted to do when we moved back from Hawaii, to have a small little farm," he said. "And so a lot of these sheep that had died would have been with us from the start, and they were some model babies. So it's just a real sad, emotional thing, due to potential dog owner's negligence.”

OSP tells us they determined in their investigation the sheep were not killed by a wild animal. Paw prints at the scene appeared to belong to a dog.

Troopers believe the dog chased the sheep until they died from exhaustion.