GREENE – Wendell Strout works with animals, and many of them are vicious. But even the seasoned animal control officer is shocked by the savagery displayed by the person who crept into his yard early Friday and slashed his inflatable Christmas decorations.

“They cut my little blowup Dalmatian,” Strout said Friday night. “They cut him right between the eyes.”

All was well at Strout’s College Road home when he turned in for the night around midnight, he said. The Dalmatian and an 8-foot carousel stood in the yard and all seemed right.

When he woke up Friday morning, the Dalmatian was a deflated heap and so was the carousel with its horses and ornaments. Attempts to reinflate the decorations were unsuccessful. Then Strout noticed the obvious slashes.

“They killed them,” he said. “They killed them dead.”

Strout, who covers animal complaints for both Lewiston and Auburn, has seen a lot in his day. He has come up against attack dogs, mean cats, and a host of combative critters, including skunks, groundhogs, snakes, fishers and woodchucks.

But the seemingly senseless attack on his lawn adornments leaves Strout and his family rabid.

“I don’t like the fact that someone was here, in my space,” he said. “It didn’t happen to anyone else around here. No one but me.”

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department was alerted to the vandalism of Strout’s Christmas display. They are on the lookout for the culprits, and they are asking for information from the community.

In the meantime, Strout plans to enjoy Christmas and then get back to dealing with beasts from the animal kingdom. They may be dangerous, Strout said, but at least they don’t attack for personal reasons like the beasts of the human variety.

“The cowards,” he said. “They can’t just let people enjoy Christmas.”