Dogs Killed 16 Show Animals in One Weekend. Is Your Petting Farm Protected?
On a Friday in late August 2026, something got into the agriculture barn at Somerset ISD in Texas and killed show animals. On Saturday morning it happened again. By the end of the weekend, 16 show animals were dead: goats, sheep and pigs that students were raising for the show season. Four more were seriously injured. During the second attack, a teacher saw two dogs leaving, and the district later said the dogs had dug under the fence from the property next door.
So, is your petting farm protected? Only if you close three gates before visitors arrive: keep loose dogs out of your pens, set a visitor pet policy people respect, and get your insurance and paperwork answers in writing. This article shows you how to do all three, with the real lessons from four dog attacks on farm and school animals since 2025.
Short answer: A fence alone doesn't protect your animals. Dogs dig under, slip through gaps and arrive on a lead with a visitor. Protect your petting farm with three layers: a dig-proof fence line and a night lock-up for your animals; a written pet policy shown in five places and enforced at the gate; and insurance, signs and records that cover you if something still goes wrong. |
Sixteen Show Animals in One Weekend: What Happened at Somerset
The Somerset ISD agriculture barn sits on 10 acres in southwest Bexar County, near San Antonio. According to KSAT, the barn had served students for more than 40 years without anything like this.
Then came two attacks on back-to-back days. News 4 San Antonio reported that about 20 animals were attacked in all. The district said it wasn't clear what attacked them the first time. During the Saturday attack, an agriculture teacher saw two dogs leaving the barn. On the Monday, the district told KSAT that the dogs had dug under the fence from a neighboring property.
No owner was named. No arrests were reported. The district police and the City of Somerset Police investigated together.
The cost was painful. One parent said their students had spent $5,000 on their animals, KSAT reported. A local feed-store manager put goats at roughly $500 to $600 and pigs at $300 to $1,000. Students lost weeks of feeding, care and early mornings, and the chance to show those animals at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
The community rallied. By the next afternoon, a GoFundMe had raised about $5,500 toward an $8,000 goal. The FFA organized a plate sale, and people donated supplies, money and even some show animals. By October, KSAT reported that the first phase of barn updates was finished and new animals were coming back.
Field-Tested Play: Somerset's dogs didn't break the fence. They went under it. Walk your fence line this week and look at the ground, not the wire: soft soil, washouts, dips and old dig holes are where a dog gets in. |
Weeks Later, in Arkansas: Two Dogs With Collars
In mid-September, a Cedar Ridge student in Independence County, Arkansas, walked into the FFA livestock facility on a Monday morning and found two dogs inside. AgDaily reported that two show goats were dead and three show lambs were badly injured.
FFA adviser Tim Cunningham said two pit bulls had come in, and both were wearing collars. Collars mean somebody probably owned them. He also said a city rule bans pit bulls inside city limits.
A GoFundMe raised $6,530 from 70 donors, more than its $5,000 goal, to pay the vet bills for the lambs, add security and cover part of the loss. The students still made it to the Arkansas State Fair in October, according to the Arkansas Farm Bureau.
That collar detail matters for every farm owner. The dog that hurts your animals isn't always a wild stray. It may be a neighbor's pet that got out, or a family dog on a day out.
It Isn't Just School Barns: A Colorado Petting Zoo Lost 7 Animals
If you think this only happens to school barns, look at Wishing Star Farm, an agritourism petting zoo in Ellicott, Colorado. In February 2026, two stray dogs got in and killed four sheep and three goats, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Others were hurt, including a goat that lost an ear.
"The animals are like family to us," co-owner Jason Wood told the paper.
And in February 2025, a pack of six stray dogs got through a breach in the fence at the Mary Carroll High School FFA barn in Corpus Christi, Texas. Three animals died. One family said the two animals they lost cost more than $4,000.
Where | When | What happened | What we know about the dogs | The lesson for your farm |
Somerset ISD FFA, Texas | Aug 2026 | 16 died, 4 seriously injured | Dug under the fence from next door | Check the ground line, not just the wire |
Cedar Ridge FFA, Arkansas | Sept 2026 | 2 goats died, 3 lambs injured | Two dogs wearing collars | Owned dogs roam too. Know your neighbors. |
Wishing Star Farm, Colorado | Feb 2026 | 7 died (4 sheep, 3 goats) | Two stray dogs | Petting farms are targets too |
Mary Carroll HS FFA, Texas | Feb 2025 | 3 died, 2 injured | A pack of 6 through a fence breach | One gap is enough |
How Common Are Dog Attacks on Livestock?
These four attacks made the news because they hit school barns and a family petting zoo. But dogs kill farm animals far more often than the headlines suggest.
In the US, the USDA estimated that dogs killed 26,931 goats and kids in a single year (2015 data).
In 2019, dogs caused about a third (33.9%) of US adult sheep deaths from predators and 15% of lamb deaths from predators, second only to coyotes, according to USDA APHIS.
In the UK, NFU Mutual estimated that dog attacks on livestock cost £1.95 million in 2025, up 10% on 2024.
In a 2025 National Sheep Association survey, 87% of sheep farmers who responded said they'd had at least one dog attack on their flock in the past year.
Here's the number that matters most for an open farm. In NFU Mutual's survey of dog owners, 57% let their dogs off the lead in the countryside, and 1 in 10 said their dog has no recall. Those are the dogs, and the owners, who will one day pull into your parking area.
If you want the bigger picture of who visits farms and how much they spend, see our agritourism statistics for 2026.
The 3 Gates of Protection Every Petting Farm Needs
When I look at these stories, I don't see bad luck. I see three gates that were open, or could have been.
Gate 1 is your animals. It keeps dogs, strays and predators out of the pens, day and night.
Gate 2 is your visitors. It decides which pets may come in, where people may go, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Gate 3 is your paperwork. It's the insurance, permits, signs and records that protect your farm and your savings if the first two gates fail.
Most farmers work hard on Gate 1, think a little about Gate 2, and leave Gate 3 until a letter arrives. Let's close all three.
Gate 1: Keep Loose Dogs Out of Your Pens
Kansas State University's guide to predator problems makes two points every petting farm should remember. Dogs often injure many animals in one attack, with bites especially on the hindquarters, and they usually don't eat what they kill. And while penning animals at night is a strong defense, many dogs are bold enough to enter corrals. Your pens need to be secure, not just closed.
A single fence is one chance to stop a dog. Five layers are five chances.
Layer 1: Know your neighbors
At Somerset, the dogs dug in from the property next door. At Cedar Ridge, they wore collars. Know whose dogs roam near you, and swap phone numbers with the people next door before there's trouble.
Layer 2: Make the perimeter fence dig-proof
Dogs dig, so the bottom of the fence matters most. Two common fixes are a dig guard, wire mesh laid flat along the outside of the fence or buried in a trench below it, and a low electric wire close to the ground on the outside.
Oklahoma State University's extension service describes a 7 to 8 wire electric fence about 48 inches tall, with the bottom charged wire about 6 inches off the ground, and says this kind of fence deters dogs and coyotes better than woven wire. Ontario's agriculture ministry recommends perimeter electric fences with at least 5 strands, alternating live and ground wires.
Layer 3: Check the pens every month
Tight gates, no gaps, no loose boards. Walk every pen once a month and look at the ground as well as the wire. At Corpus Christi, one gap was enough for a pack of six.
Layer 4: Lock up at night
Shut young and small animals in a shed with solid walls and a door that latches.
Layer 5: Put eyes on the pens
A motion light, a camera that sends alerts to your phone, or a guardian animal. Ontario's factsheet on livestock guardian dogs reports that they cut predation by about 70% on average. It also warns that roaming guardian dogs can be a public safety concern, so think hard before using one where visitors walk around.
Reality Check: On an open farm, your fence has a second job: keeping visitors' dogs out of your pens. A fence that stops a coyote at 2 a.m. may not stop a dog that slips its lead at 2 p.m. right next to the petting area. Read our list of 10 common agritourism safety hazards while you're walking the farm. |
Gate 2: Write a Visitor Pet Policy People Actually Follow
Here's the moment every open farm meets sooner or later. A family pulls in, the doors open, and out jumps a big friendly dog on a long lead. The kids are already running toward your goat pen.
What you say in the next ten seconds depends on one thing: did you decide your pet policy before that car arrived? If you didn't, you'll probably say yes to avoid a scene. And now a strange dog is standing at the fence of a pen full of animals that have never met it.
Pick one of three policies
Policy | Best for | Watch out for |
1. No pets on the farm | Petting farms, animal encounters, farms with young stock, pick-your-own fields | Some families will skip you. A few will bring the dog anyway. |
2. Pets in the parking area and picnic area only | Farm shops, cafes, scenic walks | Hot cars. You need shade and water. |
3. Leashed pets welcome, never in animal or food areas | Large walking farms, pumpkin patches with no animal contact | Needs signs, fences and staff who will say no. |
Field-Tested Play: If visitors can touch your animals, start with Policy 1. You can always relax it later. It's much harder to take a welcome back. |
Pick-your-own fields have their own reason
If visitors pick fruit or vegetables, a no-dogs rule also protects your crop. The FDA's Produce Safety Rule requires covered farms to make visitors aware of their food-safety policies, and to check growing areas for animal intrusion when animals are reasonably likely to contaminate produce. University of Massachusetts Extension advises keeping pets out of produce fields and wash and pack buildings, and using signs to ask visitors to leave pets at home.
Service animals are a different question
Before you write "no dogs" on your sign, check the rules on service animals where you farm.
In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act generally lets service animals go wherever the public can go. But the Justice Department's guidance says a zoo may keep service animals out of areas where the animals on display are natural prey or predators of dogs and a dog's presence would upset them, but not out of the rest of the zoo. Rutgers Cooperative Extension says farms can ban pets and can restrict service animals from livestock and produce packing areas. Emotional support animals are not service animals under the ADA, and when it isn't obvious that a dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two questions: is the dog required because of a disability, and what task has it been trained to do?
In the UK, the Equality and Human Rights Commission says businesses should set aside a "no dogs" policy for assistance dogs, and refusing one is unlawful except in the most exceptional circumstances. The zoo association BIAZA leaves admission to each site's own risk assessment, and advises keeping assistance dogs out of walk-through exhibits and away from animals in contact areas, with alternatives such as staff looking after the dog. Some UK farm attractions, like The Big Sheep in Devon, offer free kennels in the parking area for visitors' pets.
Field-Tested Play: Word your sign "No pets. Service animals welcome in designated areas. Please ask our team." Then decide in advance which areas those are. If you also need a USDA exhibitor license for your animals, read does your petting zoo need a USDA exhibitor license. |
Say it five times before they arrive
A rule nobody sees is just a surprise. Put your pet policy on your website, on your booking page (as a tick box), in your confirmation message, in your Google Business Profile description, and on a sign at the gate before anyone can park.
What to say at the gate
Gate script: "Oh, he's lovely! I'm so sorry, we don't allow dogs on the farm. Our goats and lambs get very stressed by dogs, even friendly ones. If someone can take him home, we'll happily honor your ticket today or move it to another day. And please don't leave him in the car. It gets hot fast." |
That script praises the dog, gives a reason about the animals instead of a rule about the visitor, and offers a way out that costs the family nothing. For more on keeping calm when guests push back, see how to handle difficult situations with visitors.
Reality Check: Train every worker, family member and volunteer on this script. Dogs tend to slip through when the person at the gate is a nice teenager who doesn't want to cause trouble. |
If a Dog Gets In: The First Hour
You can do everything right and still hear the sound every farmer dreads. If it happens, you won't have time to look anything up. Print this and pin it inside your barn door.
In many places, the dog's owner is responsible for the animals their dog kills or injures. But you can only recover the cost if you can prove what happened. Photos, the vet's written report, your purchase receipts and the names of witnesses are your evidence.
Place | What the law allows | Who pays |
Texas (Health and Safety Code 822.013) | A person who sees a dog attacking, about to attack or that recently attacked livestock, or the animals' owner, may kill it. A landowner may detain or impound it. | The dog's owner is liable for all damages, plus the cost of catching and keeping the dog. |
Arkansas (A.C.A. 20-19-102) | A person may kill a dog that has killed, or is about to injure or kill, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs or poultry. | The dog's owner is liable for the full value of the animals killed or injured. |
England and Wales (Animals Act 1971; Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, as amended in 2025) | If you own the livestock or the land, or act for the owner, there is a defense for killing or injuring a dog worrying livestock when there was no other reasonable way to stop it and the police are told within 48 hours. Since 18 March 2026, the maximum fine for the livestock worrying offense is unlimited, and llamas and alpacas count as livestock for that offense. | Under the Animals Act 1971, the dog's keeper is liable for the damage. |
Reality Check: A law that allows something doesn't make it the right move with families watching. Your first job is keeping people safe. Call animal control or the police and let them deal with the dog wherever you can. Rules differ by state and country, so check yours now, not on the day. |
Gate 3: Get Your Insurance and Paperwork Answers in Writing
Gate 3 is the one most farmers leave open, because paperwork is never urgent until the day it is.
Your farm policy may not cover visitors
A standard farm policy is written for farming, not paying guests. An Ohio State University and National Agricultural Law Center factsheet warns that a farm policy may give no cover for agritourism unless a specific agritourism rider has been added, and it names petting zoos and pony rides as activities to check. Agricultural law professor Roger McEowen of Washburn University School of Law, writing in a Kansas State University AgManager publication, says a comprehensive farm or ranch liability policy is not likely to cover agritourism claims. The good news, from Ohio State University Extension, is that almost any activity can be covered with the right endorsement.
For the full picture, read agritourism insurance: what it covers and what it costs, the $7.55 million petting zoo insurance lesson, and what to do when your farm insurer says no. Farming in Texas? See Texas agritourism insurance.
Questions to ask your insurance agent
Does my policy cover paying visitors, or do I need an agritourism endorsement or a separate policy?
Are petting, feeding or bottle-feeding animals covered, or excluded?
If one of my animals bites or kicks a visitor, am I covered?
If a visitor's dog injures one of my animals, or another guest, whose policy pays?
Are my own animals covered if a dog kills them? University of Vermont Extension explains that mortality insurance works like life insurance for named animals. Ask whether a dog attack would be covered rather than assuming it.
What signs, waivers or records do you want me to keep?
Your agritourism law has conditions
More than 30 US states have agritourism liability laws, and by one 2022 count at least 39. But these laws have exceptions. Depending on the state, they may not protect you if you were negligent or showed willful or wanton disregard for safety, or if you knew about a dangerous condition or an animal's dangerous habits and didn't warn people. Most also require a warning notice with set wording, usually a posted sign and sometimes a signed agreement, and many set the letter size and placement. In North Carolina, the sign needs black letters at least ¾ inch tall at the entrance and at the activity.
Check your state in our agritourism laws by state guide, see where to post your agritourism warning signs, and learn whether liability waivers protect your farm.
Reality Check: An agritourism law is not a force field. If a visitor's child is bitten because you knew an animal was nippy and said nothing, the law may not help you. Write down any animal that bites, kicks or butts, and keep it away from visitors. Our guide to managing liability when hosting farm animals goes deeper. |
Follow the animal-contact guidance
The US Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings (2023), written by state public health veterinarians with the CDC, recommends separate animal, transition and non-animal areas; handwashing stations at the exits; no food, strollers or pacifiers in animal areas; extra care for children under 5; and keeping on-site mammals up to date on rabies vaccination. See our petting zoo handwashing system and what the Bengtson's E. coli investigation teaches farms with animals. Then put it all in a written risk management plan.
What I Think About on My Own Farm
At Bloopy Durians, my durian farm in Malaysia, visitors come to eat durians, and we also keep chickens, geese, ducks and fish. Birds don't need a pack of dogs to get hurt. One loose dog in a duck run can do a lot of damage in a few minutes.
So these questions aren't theory for me. Where could a dog get in? What do we say when a visitor arrives with a pet? Who pays if something goes wrong? If you're planning to open your farm, start with those three questions. If you're not sure your farm is ready for visitors at all, read the 21 signs your farm is ready for agritourism first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I stop visitors from bringing dogs onto my farm?
In most places, yes. Your farm is private property, and you can set a no-pets rule for visitors. Service animals are the main exception to check. Post the rule in advance on your website, booking page and gate sign so visitors know before they come.
Do I have to let service dogs into my petting zoo?
It depends on where you farm. In the US, Justice Department guidance says a zoo may keep service animals out of areas where the animals on display are natural prey or predators of dogs and a dog's presence would upset them, but not out of other public areas. Emotional support animals are not covered by the ADA. In the UK, assistance dogs must generally be admitted, though zoo guidance suggests keeping them out of contact areas. Check local rules.
How do dogs usually get into livestock pens?
In the attacks in this article, dogs dug under a fence at Somerset and came through a fence breach at Corpus Christi. Check the ground line and every gate, and lock young or small animals in a secure shed at night.
Who pays if a neighbor's dog kills my goats?
In many places, the dog's owner. Texas and Arkansas law both make the owner liable for the animals killed or injured. You'll need evidence: photos, a vet's written report, receipts and witness names. Check the law where you farm.
Will my farm insurance pay if a visitor's dog is bitten by one of my animals, or bites a guest?
It depends on your policy. Many farm policies limit or exclude business activities with visitors. Ask your agent the questions in this article and get the answers in writing.
Should my petting farm allow dogs on a lead?
If visitors can touch or feed your animals, a no-pets policy is the simplest and safest choice. Leashed dogs can still frighten animals through a fence. Farms without animal contact can choose to allow leashed dogs away from animal and food areas.
Close All Three Gates This Month
I put everything in this article, and a lot more, into a short, printable playbook called Before You Open the Gate. Inside you'll find the 3 Gates plan, three ready-made pet policies with wording you can copy, the gate script, the First Hour checklist, four word-for-word call scripts for your insurer, county, health department and animal control, three printable signs, an incident log and a 30-day plan. It's $27, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Not sure which part of your farm needs work first? Take the free Farm Readiness Quiz. It takes a few minutes and shows your strongest and weakest areas.
And if you're just getting started, download the free 21-Point Agritourism Blueprint, the checklist I wish I'd had before my first visitor.
P.S. The Somerset barn ran for more than 40 years without an attack like this. Then it was hit twice in one weekend. Your farm doesn't need 40 years of bad luck. It needs one gap in the fence. Walk yours this week.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general education, not legal, insurance or veterinary advice. Laws differ by state and country, so check the rules that apply to your farm with a qualified local professional.
Sources
KSAT: 16 Somerset ISD show animals killed, 4 seriously injured after dogs attack AG Barn (Aug 2026)
KSAT: Fundraiser scheduled to help Somerset FFA students (Aug 2026)
News 4 San Antonio: Community rallies around Somerset students (Aug 2026)
AgDaily via NewsBreak: Dog attack kills Cedar Ridge FFA show goats, injures lambs (Sept 2026)
Arkansas Farm Bureau: 2026 Arkansas State Fair, Cedar Ridge FFA (Oct 2026)
Colorado Springs Gazette: Wishing Star Farm petting zoo attack (Feb 2026)
KRIS 6 / KZTV: 3 Carroll High School FFA animals killed in stray dog attack (Feb 2025)
USDA APHIS: Goat and Kid Predator and Nonpredator Death Loss, 2015
Defra: Law changes strengthen protection for livestock (Dec 2025)
Oklahoma State University Extension: Electric Fencing for Sheep
Rutgers Cooperative Extension: Public animals on retail farms (2026)
UMass Extension: Wildlife, domesticated animals and land use
National Agricultural Law Center: Agritourism and Insurance factsheet
National Agricultural Law Center: Agritourism Immunity factsheet
Ohio State University Extension: Farm insurance for unique assets and activities
BIAZA: Advice on admitting assistance dogs to zoos and aquariums
National Agricultural Law Center: North Carolina agritourism statute
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