Owner Mourns Loss Of Great Dane Mauled By Wild Animal
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A southern Minnesota family lost one of their 200 pound Great Danes Saturday when a wild animal attacked their animals.
Officers say it may have been a mountain lion, but there's no doubt it was something wild.
Alex Endrizzi has been an owner of Great Danes for 47 years.
She recent bought Boomer and his twin Commie. Both were two-years-old.
On Saturday in Rochester, Minn. while the family was out to breakfast, an uninvited visitor attacked Boomer.
"There was just blood all over and I looked in my bed and there sat my dog sitting up, but all his intestines and guts were outside on the bed right next to him," Endrizzi said.
He made it inside and got her in bed, his stomach sliced open deep gashes to his back.
"So I made the decision to uh put him out of his misery," she said.
Now, the twin is without his match.
Endrizzi said Commie hasn't eaten since the attack happened.
"Now he just lays there and he's pretty bummed out," she said.
The attacker had to get past a five-foot fence, an electric one and past Comet who sustained several gashes to his head.
Endrizzi doesn't know what it was.
"He was either really hungry, or I don't know. I'm stumped on this one," she said.
The Olmstead Deputies are also stumped.
They are working with the DNR, but say they did have a report of a mountain lion's paw print at a nearby golf course.
"I've been here since '88, and nothing like this has ever happened," Endrizzi said.
Hard to believe, even harder to accept.
In the meantime, Endrizzi said she will just have to think of the joy training a new puppy will bring.
The Olmstead Sheriff said they are asking people to keep a close eye on out and if anyone spots an unusual wild animal, to call 911.
