SOQUEL — Five alpacas have died after being mauled by two errant pit bulls at a farm and preschool 1 mile north of Soquel Drive, according to information from the owner and Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.

One animal was found dead at the Rocking Horse Ranch Day Care’s corral — a quarter-acre spread for the original 10 ruminants — when a ranch hand found two strange dogs on a front porch at the property about 6:30 a.m. July 17.

Preschool services started 9 a.m. that Wednesday. School co-owner Nancy Cohen said the loss is a tragedy but found it fortunate the children had not arrived to find the dead animal and wounded four ruminants. She and her husband, Harvey, own the alpacas and share their sought-after fiber for a variety of textiles.

The loss — and ongoing veterinarian expense — will be tens of thousands of dollars, Nancy Cohen said.

Both dogs had tags. One had some blood on its paw, Cohen said. The person who feeds the alpacas called the pit bull owners before realizing the corral was strewn with injured animals.

“It’s just a really sad situation,” Cohen said. “The dogs were not required to be put down, which I think is a travesty and I’m a dog owner and dog lover. I think, without a doubt, if these dogs get out again, they will do this again to someone’s animals.”

Parents have become afraid for their children’s safety at day care since the attacks.

Cohen does not believe the dogs would harm people after her feeder was able to approach the dogs.

The dogs’ owners were issued citations for harassing or harming livestock — $300 per pit bull — and having dogs off leash, Animal Shelter General Manager Melanie Sobel said. It is a $50 fine to have a dog off-leash in Santa Cruz County for the first offense. Officials did not release the identifies of the dogs’ owners.

Sobel said county animal services officers are limited in their authority in a case of animal-on-animal aggression.

“The only way we have authority to seize an animal is if there is a threat to public safety,” Sobel said. “There’s a difference between prey drive and aggression toward humans. Just because animals attack other animals does not necessarily mean they will be human-aggressive.”

Cohen said Santa Cruz County needs to create a law that would allow any animal to be put down for killing another domesticated animal or livestock.

“These dogs are dangerous — more dangerous than mountain lions,” Cohen said. “We had mountain lions on our property and they selectively picked the goat they wanted. These dogs did this for sport.”

Cinammon, 13, was the oldest alpaca killed by the attack. The animals were ambushed in the dark, their bellies bitten, bringing them to the ground.

Tina, Cookie and Snow White — all 4 years old — since have died, too. So has Buttercup, the alpaca that was just 2 years old.

Three dark-colored male alpacas escaped the attackers.

“We think that some of the females that were killed may have been pregnant,” Cohen said.

A severe infection common in dog-bite wounds eventually killed three of the animals. Two others are still fighting the same infection.

The alpacas were protected by a fence and Cohen said she thinks the dogs had to enter under the enclosure.

“They very much had to try to get in there,” Cohen said.

The ranch isn’t far from the bustle of Soquel, according to Cohen.

“We’re only a mile up from Soquel Drive,” she said. “We’re not way up in the boonies.”

Not all dogs can roam off-leash without causing problems, Sobel said. “It depends on the dog.”

Livestock attacks in the county usually involve targeted chickens.

“That happens regularly. By dogs,” Sobel said. “It’s not such an unusual thing. It’s just a question of the owners managing that behavior. It’s prey drive. You have to control it. But these animals suffered a horrible death.”