Florida school seeks donations to replace fences after 29 show animals killed

LAKE WALES, Fla. (WFLA) – When Jennifer Williams arrived at her school in Lake Wales, Florida on Thursday morning, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The agriculture teacher and Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor said what she saw looked like “a massacre.”

“There were just dead rabbits everywhere, dead chickens everywhere,” the Bok Academy North teacher said. “It was unreal.”

Earlier that morning, three dogs dug a hole under a fence and got into an area called the “Land Lab” at the school. Here, students and staff house dozens of exhibit animals, including rabbits, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs and cattle.

FFA students help breed and raise the animals and then show them at youth fairs.

“A lot of the kids aren’t around animals because they’re more from the city,” Williams said. “They bond better with chickens and rabbits because they are smaller.”

The dogs managed to rip open the rabbit cages and get into the chicken coop.

Although a guard managed to scare the dogs away before they could enter a nearby duck enclosure, 29 rabbits and chickens had already been killed.

Two rabbits remained safe in a wooden enclosure.

“I have never seen dogs randomly attack a chicken in the middle of school. There’s a fence and everything. I thought it would stop them, but obviously it didn’t,” said Zibe Stein, eighth-grader and Bok Academy North FFA president.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the dogs were mixed breed dogs and belonged to two neighbors. Both neighbors were reported for allowing their dogs to roam illegally.

Polk County Animal Control discovered the dogs lying at an intersection but eventually lost sight of them. They had not been found as of Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, students and staff at Bok Academy North are trying to recover from the incident as their hopes of a successful youth fair season next year are likely to be dashed.

“At the various trade fairs there are rules regarding age limits for animals. They must therefore have reached a certain age before they can be issued. All the chickens we get now are new chickens – they wouldn’t be able to show because they wouldn’t be quite old enough,” Williams said. “We’re going to have a lot of kids who can’t show poultry because they’ve all been killed.”

Most of the surviving animals will be housed off-site while the school works to improve safety measures.

Williams said the school is accepting donations for new, sturdier fences and residential fencing. Anyone interested in getting involved can contact Williams at the school at (863) 232-4665.