Back in October 2023, The 麻花视频 published perhaps the most lurid headline ever to grace one of these columns. The online version read, 鈥淣umerous rumblings in Deyerle about 鈥榓 terrible smell of death.鈥欌
Residents of the Greater Deyerle neighbood say a pack of wolf-hybrid dogs being raised at 3580 Windsor Road (above) poses a danger to people and pets in their community. The house is across the street from Windsor Hills United Methodist Church.
The issue then 鈥 and now 鈥 was a pack of wolf-hybrid dogs, as many as five, at 3580 Windsor Road. The owners were feeding the beasts rotting, malodorous deer carcasses, delivered regularly by the truckload. Occasionally the wolf-hybrids would escape and threaten neighbors鈥 pets.
But little happened as a result. Ron Sink, the complaining next door neighbor, later moved out of the city, simply to get away from the wolf-hybrids. Now he lives in Cave Spring. His new dog is much safer there, Sink told me.
The evening of June 26, the creatures escaped confinement yet again. This time, the pack stalked and killed a doe in the yard of Jim and Sandra Ryals on Mudlick Road. They called 911.
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A pack of wolf-hybrid dogs being raised at a home in Deyerle got loose and killed a doe along Mudlick Road on June 26 in Jim and Sandra Ryals yard. Sandra Ryals said it took the dogs three attempts to finally bring down the doe. Her two fawns managed to escape.
Sandra Ryals is a retired public health nurse-administrator and former deputy director of two state health agencies. She wrote a dramatic letter about the attack that found its way to the 麻花视频 City Council. Monday, the council took a preliminary step toward doing something about those beasts.
Councilwoman Evelyn Powers raised the issue at the end of council鈥檚 afternoon meeting. Powers said her chief concern is that 鈥渁ny of these dogs could get out and hurt our children or citizens.鈥
In response, City Attorney Tim Spencer said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e on top of it. It鈥檚 something we鈥檙e going to work with our intern on.鈥
Evelyn Powers
Powers said she wants something done in August.
The intern will 鈥渂e working with us to help us craft an ordinance, and we鈥檒l work through the city manager鈥檚 office to get that on the council鈥檚 agenda as soon as possible,鈥 Spencer said.
鈥淲e clearly need to give this future consideration on how we can act,鈥 Mayor Joe Cobb said.
Wolf-hybrid bans allowed
localities to regulate canine hybrids and/or ban them. And 麻花视频 wouldn鈥檛 be the first Virginia locality to legislate against the creatures. Along with alligators and baboons,
Virginia code explictly says localities may regulate or ban the keeping of wolf-hybrid canines.
The beasts aren鈥檛 the deadliest dogs in the United States 鈥 that distinction still belongs to pit bulls. But wolf-hybrids kill humans with depressing regularity. The website maintains a list.
features more than two dozen detailed accounts of blood-curdling fatal attacks by wolf-hybrids. Though the dead victims鈥 ages ranged from newborns to elders, most were children.
The youngest, , was an 8-day-old newborn in Lee County, in far Southwest Virginia. A 3-year-old wolf-hybrid mauled the infant in her bassinet. The dog, owned by the baby鈥檚 family, was later euthanized.
In 2023, former 麻花视频 city attorney Bill Hackworth sent me a link to a news account of the most recent fatal wolf-hybrid attack on an infant in the nation.
That was , 20 miles southeast of Birmingham. The victim was a 3-month-old baby killed by the family鈥檚 pet. That dog, too, was later put down.
On the loose June 26
No humans or pets got killed or injured June 26 in Deyerle, when the wolf- hybrids escaped their confinement once again. But the pack stalked and killed a mother deer, which basically sacrificed herself to save two fawns.
Dan Casey story on alleged unsanitary conditions in SW 麻花视频
It happened right in front of Sandra Ryals on Mudlick Road, and it left her shrieking in fear. Ryals offered a gripping account in an email to the Greater Deyerle Neighborhood Association.
鈥淚 am still scared after seeing a pack of wolf hybrid dogs kill a deer in our front yard and tried to attack us and our dogs last night,鈥 Ryals wrote. (She and her husband have two Cavalier King Charles spaniels that are each under 25 pounds.)
鈥淢y sister fought off the wolf dogs from our small family pets with a metal collapsible fence, screaming loudly. My husband and I quickly got the water hose out, and he sprayed water to ward off the wolf dogs from catching one of our small fur babies, giving her time to escape under a fence into the house.
鈥淢eanwhile I am screaming louder than I could have (imagined),鈥 Ryals continued. 鈥淣eighbors came, and at least two of us have photos of the terribly frightening scenes.鈥
Sandra Ryals lives in the Deyerle neighborhood with her husband, Jim Ryals, and their two Cavalier King Charles spaniels, Archie and Annabell. She wants wolf-hybrid dogs banned from the city of 麻花视频.
She called 911. 麻花视频 police and animal control responded. The officer put the wounded deer down, police said.
Owner cited, faces fines
Police identified Thomas Blanding as the dogs鈥 owner and cited him with four misdemeanors. One was failing to provide reasonable care for an animal. The other three were unlawfully allowing a dog to run at large. Each charge is a class 4 misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250.
Wednesday, I knocked on the door of 3580 Windsor Road.
Dan Casey story on alleged unsanitary conditions in SW 麻花视频
The home鈥檚 front yard appears to serve as an outdoor storage area for landscaping materials, tools and more. A man who identified himself as 鈥淛ohnny鈥 Blanding came to the door and said Thomas Blanding wasn鈥檛 home. He gave me a phone number he said was Thomas鈥檚. I left a voicemail. There was no callback.
In December 2021, Jonathan Dean Blanding was charged with two counts of violating Virginia鈥檚 dangerous dog ordinance, according to online court records. Those charges were dismissed Feb. 1, 2022.
Although a police account said three wolf hybrids were in the pack June 26, Sandra Ryals said there were four on the loose initially, but one ran off.
She watched as the pack of wolf hybrids tackled and brought down the deer three times. Two fawns that were with the doe escaped.
鈥淭he wolf dogs are scary, frightened us beyond words, and cause us to be fearful in our own yard,鈥 Ryals wrote in her letter. 鈥淭hese dangerous aggressive wolf dogs do not belong in the neighborhood!鈥
One of her neighbors posted about the issue on the social media site , where it鈥檚 attracted 163 comments, some of which are lengthy and seem informative.
Another neighbor, Beth Wilbourne, snapped photos of the wolf-hybrids attacking the doe, and gave me permission to publish them.
In 2023, Ron Sink called the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to the house. A DWR sergeant observed 75 rotting deer heads on the property. (Those were being used to breed maggots, as food for backyard chickens.) A department spokeswoman said the situation did not violate state wildlife regulations.
Ron Sink
Sink later contacted the 麻花视频 offices of the Virginia Health Department. Spokeswoman Christie Wills said her office received three complaints of 鈥渄ecaying animal carcasses鈥 in the Windsor Hills neighborhood between Oct. 17 and 23, 2023.
鈥淎n investigation into the matter included a site visit by a RCHD Environmental Health Specialist on 10/18/23,鈥 Wills said. 鈥淣o visible evidence of decaying animal matter nor odor was observed during the visit.
A 麻花视频 police spokeswoman said animal wardens responded to the house in question twice in 2024 for reports of 鈥渙dors,鈥 once for a report of a backyard fire and once in connection with a report of a rooster.
Ryals told me efforts are now underway to document all times the wolf- hybrids have escaped, because residents of the area want to ensure the city council has all relevant information as it considers banning the creatures.
Ryals said she鈥檚 been subpoenaed to testify in 麻花视频 General District Court on Aug. 5, Thomas Blanding鈥檚 court date.
Ron Sink told me he moved out of his house this year because, 鈥淚 just felt like nothing was going to get done,鈥 following his complaints in 2023.
Sink still owns his former home on Windsor Road. He might try to sell it next year, he said.
That will be hard if the wolf-hybrids are still there, he added.
