Dogs that killed UGA couple put down

By CHRISTIAN BOONE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The pack of dogs that attacked and killed a UGA librarian and her husband, a retired professor at the university, were euthanized Tuesday at the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan said the agency obtained a court order to dispose of the 14 mongrel dogs who mauled Sherry Schweder, 65, and Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, sometime Friday evening. Their mutilated bodies were found by a pair of visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses about 12 hours after they went missing.

The deceased couple’s former neighbor, who had recently moved away because of medical problems, fed the feral dogs, and residents of this rural stretch of Oglethorpe County say the canines hadn’t shown any previous signs of aggressive behavior.

“We never had a problem with them,” said Lanier Bridges, who lives a few houses down on Elberton Road in Lexington. His wife, Jeannette Bridges, said she didn’t believe the dogs were responsible for the vicious attacks.

But the autopsy results were conclusive, officials say. And Oglethorpe County Coroner James Matthews said the dogs were still standing over the slain couple when he arrived at the scene Saturday morning.

Sherry Schweder, a humanities bibliographer at UGA’s main library, was out looking for one of her own six dogs when she was attacked, Matthews said. Her husband, who taught German at the university, was killed after he apparently went looking for his wife.

Authorities plan to consult later this week to decide whether to bring charges against the man who cared for the dogs.

-- Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this report.