A 12-year-old goat handler’s hope was restored two weeks ago when she and her family welcomed five new Alpine goats into their family after losing four in an attack by dogs.

Shiloh Roberts, a Warren County Four-H member, and her family returned home on the afternoon of Jan. 12 to find four of their five goats, three Alpine show goats and the family’s South African boar, slaughtered by a neighbor’s pit bull and Great Pyrennees. One of the victims was Cinnamon, Shiloh’s goat that had taken the second-place ribbon at the 2009 Mississippi State Fair. Sally, her third-place-winner, was the only survivor.

“I was so sad,” Shiloh said.

“We’ve had problems before, but nothing like this,” said her mother, Sherry Roberts. “It was horrifying.”

Roberts said she suspects the dogs crawled beneath the fence.

“I saw one of the dogs attacking Cinnamon,” she said. “(My neighbors) said the pit bull had blood all over him, and thought he just found a deer carcass. I’ve never seen mutilation like this ever in my life. This is the most devastating thing we’ve ever dealt with.”

Both dogs were euthanized.

Roberts estimated more than $3,000 in animal care and potential earnings were lost when their goats were killed. But all was not lost.

As word of the Roberts tragedy spread, goat owners from across Mississippi joined in and offered support.

Wandra Evans and her husband, Raymond, found new animals for Shiloh.  “I put a little note out to our talk group and told everyone what happened,” Evans said.

Evans delivered an 8-year-old goat named Coretta and her 1-year-old daughter, Easter, to the Robertses two weeks ago — courtesy of the members of the Mississippi Goat Association.

The Robertses were also able to land four more goats.

“Goats are social creatures so we had to get more than one,” Roberts said.

“Right now, I’m bottle-feeding one of the goats so she follows me everywhere I go,” Shiloh said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Shiloh will show none of her goats in the Dixie National Rodeo, which began in January and continues through this weekend at the Mississippi State Fair Grounds, but will be prepping them for the Mississippi State Fair set in October.

Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com

From Warren County

Sixteen Four-H students from Warren County will participate in the 2010 Dixie National Rodeo on Sunday. The students, 14 to 18, will compete in the calf scramble, a free-for-all competition in which teams of two are placed in a pen with a calf to catch it and walk it back to a designated area.

In the 2008 and 2009 competitions, Warren County produced first place winners.

They were repeat champions Jeremy Roach and Austin Palmer, both 2009 graduates of Porters Chapel Academy and Eagle Four-H members.

This year’s competitors are:

• Caze Brewer, 18, Porters Chapel Academy, and John Whitehead, 17, Warren Central High School

• Michael Bilbo,16, and Justin McDaniel, 14, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Gray Hales,16, and Jacob Smithy,15, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Jeremy Jones, 14, and Jonah Masterson, 14, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Elizabeth Holloway, 15, and Richard Brown, 18, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Justin Jones, 17, and Winter Alexander,17, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Samantha Brewer, 14, and Sara Beth Simms, 15, both Porters Chapel Academy

• Kayla Boler, 17, and Kayla Truesdale, 15 both Warren Central High School