In the wake of the mystery “black panther” being killed in Missouri comes a news item out of Indiana of the killing of a pack of mystery canids this week. The story broke late last night, May 22, 2008.

The event occurred at Gatchel, which is a little unincorporated town in Perry County, Indiana, sitting along the Ohio River, about 55 miles due east of Evansville, Indiana. Gatchel is on the western border of the Hoosier National Forest, a 200,000 acre park in the rolling hills of south central Indiana.

Ray Patton had just let his dogs out when one instantly started squealing in pain.

He automatically grabbed his gun. “I just instantly started shooting where I knew they were.”

A pack of animals was attacking his dog Kasey and trying to get his other dog.

“Kasey got about half way up to the house and fell down and my youngest daughter Katie picked her up and put her in the kitchen sink because she was bleeding all over everything.”

But Patton thought he must be seeing things.

“The first thing that come to my mind was wolf because I knew it wasn’t no coyote because they were about waist high standing about ten feet from me,” he said.

“I was expecting to see a collie maybe, a German shepherd, even a lab,” said Indiana Conservation Officer Joe Lackey.

He doubted the “wolf” theory from the start.

That is, until the animals returned to the Patton house for more. “Something was wrong with the way these things looked,” he said.

Within just a few hours five had been shot and more had been sighted.

“There’s been people up and down the roads since this has happened hunting wolves and that is what we don’t want,” Lackey said.

While Patton loves his dog, he’s thankful it wasn’t his grandchildren out in the backyard that day.

“He said they shook her pretty hard from both ends and he said the muscles under her skin were just like ground beef, and then she has numerous bite marks on her.”

The animals are currently being tested, to see if they are wolves or a hybrid mix. Residents are hopeful they’ve seen the last of them.

If you’ve seen these animals, or know anything about them, call the Tell City Police at 812-547-7068.

Source: “Wild dogs nearly kill a family pet,” WFIE-14, Evansville, Illinois, Reporter: Stefanie Silvey, New Media Producer: Melissa Greathouse, May 22, 2008 09:27 PM.

(Thanks to Cryptomundo correspondent John Jackson of Indiana, for forwarding this news.)