RCMP investigation | Nighttime incident alarms Alberta neighbours
Three of Dana Fancy’s cows are sporting gunshot wounds following an apparent shooting spree in the early morning hours of March 24 southwest of Stavely, Alta.
A pick-up truck, several gates and the lights at the airport near Clare-sholm, Alta., were also damaged.
RCMP are investigating.
“It was all kind of along this one range road north of Claresholm,” said const. Dillon Rochon of the Claresholm RCMP.
“It’s not a typical call for us to get. It’s really strange to deal with this, but we’ll deal with it the best we can. We’re treating this very seriously, so we’d like to catch anyone who was involved.”
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He confirmed a 12-gauge shotgun was used.
Fancy said one cow was shot in the udder, one in the muzzle and a third in the shoulder. All survived and one of them has since calved.
“The cows are sore and they’ve got some holes in them, but they are healing and we’re watching now for infection,” Fancy said.
A veterinarian has looked at the animals. but there is little that can be done for them.
“If they survive, they survive and I guess if they don’t, they don’t,” Fancy said. “So far they’re hanging in there. Some of them don’t look that good.”
Andy Hart, who ranches 16 kilo-metres away from Fancy, is relieved that damage in his yard was limited to his son’s 1999 Ford Ranger, which the family had bought only three weeks ago. Hart’s daughter and a friend were sleeping in a fifth-wheel trailer beside the pickup when shots broke the Ranger’s rear window and windshield.
“If it was random and if they were just picking something in the yard to shoot, I’m glad they picked the truck,” said Hart.
The two girls in the trailer didn’t realize what had happened until the next day, but the truck was his son’s first vehicle and the insurance adjuster has since written it off.
The Hart ranch is on a secondary highway and a road allowance.
“It’s not completely unusual to have people come through our yard at night, but it is unusual to have them come through with a shotgun blasting,” Hart said. “It’s unsettling.”
Fancy said he found empty beer cans and shotgun shells in the field and believes it was a random, alcohol induced crime spree.
“It was just a random thing. If they’d turned the other way and went into a field, they’d have shot the neighbour’s cows. There’s cows all over up here.”
He said the RCMP are taking the matter seriously.
“They take a dim view of this. I don’t like it either. Shooting is fine, but at the right time and the right place.”
Rochon said RCMP are asking anyone with information to call the detachment or Crimestoppers. One person has reported spotting a vehicle thought to be a truck, but it isn’t much of a lead.
“It had a loud muffler on it, which doesn’t narrow it down a whole lot around here.”
