No need, our civil lawyers say that he's already cooked!

A mauling like that is almost always a dog. Wild predators kill to eat, domestics maul and leave slash marks just like that.

Trail cam time ,and traps

This is what I was thinking

It was alive and well when I went to bed, found like this in the morning. Again it's only about a 6 to 7 pound goat which is why I didn't think dog, figured a dog would leave with it.

Can we rule out owls or birds of prey? This thing is tiny, about the size of your boot.

I moved the babies closer to the house tonight, I'm on the warpath tomorrow and not worried about collateral damage, if it has the ability to harm a newborn goat it's done.

Never seen a coyote eat chest back

Any broken/ chewed through bones? It does show conflicting evidence. Dogs often attack the hind quarters 1st, but we are talking about a very small prey animal here. I have never seen a wild canine begin to feed on that area 1st. Always a 1st time for everything.

No one’s mentioned a Bob/lynx cat yet?

I'm saying a dog, had a few killing every around here a few years ago, and they just killed they hardly ate anything. sheep chicken's ducks' rabbits

Keep us posted! I am going with Dog. JMO

TTT

I'd leave the goat right where it is an gang set a bunch of footholds around it you'll know by morning

Nothing came back for the carcas. I'm starting to wonder if someone was walking their dog at night and it jumped in and killed it quick.

If u really wanted to know you would have skinned it back and looked at the teeth marks. Whatever killed it chewed on it for awhile to do the damage in the pics.

I agree with Yes Sir. Those rib bones are broke/chewed through to expose the internal organs....heart, lungs, etc. This suggests cat or cat-like animal to me as they usually don't have the means to break long bones like a canine. They also like to enter the carcass from behind the shoulder and eat the good stuff first many times. In my opinion, it was probably a small/juvenile bobcat that was really hungry, and had not perfected killing yet.

It does look like damage from a raptor. If that happened in Ohio, I would guess black vulture, red tail hawk or eagle. Great horned and barn owls usually eat the heads.

Much of the time, another predator, of a different species, will feed on the kill after the first predator is done or driven off. That wound looks like it's all done by a bird.

Keith

Rib bones are broke/chewed through Keith. That suggest some kind of mammal to me.
From what I’ve seen, raptors usually enter the carcass through the soft areas, especially black vultures. Eyes, genital/anus area.

I’m not saying it want a bird as small an animal as the kid goat was, but whatever it was was after the heart and lungs.

I used to do a lot of falconry. The redtail hawks we hunted with would pull the muscle away from the rib bones on the rabbits and squirrels they caught and then pull and twist the bone, breaking them like that. The goat bones look more like they were broken that way, rather than chewed on.

That goat kid is smaller than some of the rabbits we used as "baggies", when we couldn't find any game.

The fact that the hole and damage is all continuous, makes it look like bird of prey damage too. They typically make one hole and work through it, expanding it as necessary.

Keith

My thoughts too.

Excellent observation and experience Keith!