JOYCE — The morning of May 26, Connie Beauvais of Joyce looked out her dining room window and saw the dead bodies of her alpacas scattered over her yard.
Ten of her herd of 15 were shot and killed in the early morning hours, said Beauvais, who is also the president of the Port of Port Angeles commission and the operator of the Crescent Water Association.
“I am still almost at the edge of crying,” she said Friday, her voice shaking. “I’ve been so angry for two weeks that someone could shoot them execution style. This is a very sick person.”
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a felony investigation into the killings of the animals as animal cruelty in the first degree. Investigators are seeking information about the shootings from the public.
Beauvais reported the shootings at about 1 p.m. May 26, saying the animals had been shot the night before, the sheriff’s office said. A veterinarian confirmed the alpacas were killed with a small caliber weapon.
“This was done in the dead of the night under a clear sky with a crescent moon with a silencer and night-vision glasses,” Beauvais surmised, since her dog did not alert to the sound of shots being fired.
“I have a dog who runs for the shower whenever she hears a firecracker and she slept through it,” Beavuais said.
“He or they could very well have fired a shot into my house and killed one of us.”
Beauvais said that at 3:08 a.m., she heard a partial alarm call from an alpaca but it was not a normal call and she did not investigate.
“I’m so glad I didn’t get up to see what the alarm call was about because I could have been shot and killed too,” Beauvais said.
She thinks the five alpacas left were hidden from view by shelters.
“I believe his intent was to shoot and kill every alpaca on our property,” she said.
The animals are not visible from the road, so “somebody got out and walked through the trees over to the pasture and shot them purposely,” Beauvais said.
“Everyone in our county should be disgusted by this action,” she said. “If he gets away with this, he will feel more confidence and we don’t know what he would aim at next. It could be a person. It could be a child.”
Beauvais said the buried alpacas have to be exhumed to be x-rayed to discover more about the bullets.
The youngest was 13 years old. Beauvais watched the breedings and births, named them, raised them, shown them and sold their fleece.
“I haven’t cried yet, but it’s coming,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call dispatchers at 360-417- 2459 (option 1).
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.