Feral Beagles Terrorize New York

Tip of the hat to Roy Cohen for this one.

A band of wild beagles is scaring residents on part of Long Island, WABC-TV reports — even though it’s nothing new.

Dot Faszczewski, of Orient Point, was walking her dog, Trapper, when she encountered two or three of them.

“I could hear them coming towards me, it was a ferocious kind of barking,” she said. “I quickly grabbed my dog and came running into the house, just as we got in the dogs jumped at the door. I thought it was just some wolves coming at me.”

The report noted the beagles have been a problem for many years — the result of dogs being abandoned by hunters for failing to meet “rabbit-catching quotas.”

Area shelters have been trying to round up the beagles, socialize and rehabilitate them and find them adoptive homes. Reports of the beagles being aggressive don’t surprise shelter officials.

“Certainly if they’re out in a pack and their starving and their freezing they’re going to become aggressive,” said Pam Green of the Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton. She said her shelter takes in about 40 beagles a year.

County Coroner Richard "Rick" Kluszewski cautioned,"These hounds would put the fear of god in any sane man. Once they get the taste of human flesh, there's no more lethal enemy than a beagle. Give me a good AKC trained bitch and I'd put her up again' a mountain lion."

Residents are advised to stay in their homes and not to try to tackle the lop eared assassins on their own. Apparently masked beneath their cute pint sized exterior is an advanced and very lethal killing machine.

Sheriff Mulloy said,"All my officers receive a minimum of 40 hours in Beagle defense training. This ain't kid's stuff." Residents who encounter the canine executioners are urged to call the authorities at their earliest opportunity.