accused of killing neighbor's chickens

Something killed about 20 of my neighbor's chickens without eating them. Their property backs up to a state park. I have a ~35 pound 2-yr old mutt. He is very timid and I regularly leave him with my chickens all day, even for days at a time when I'm on travel (someone comes and feeds him over that time). He has never been aggressive toward my chickens. In fact, he will back away from food if a chicken wants it. The neighbor has other large foul that sometimes come into my yard, and my dog has not been aggressive toward them either. Some of my neighbor's mature roosters that were killed stood about as tall as my dog. My dog sometimes get out, and has gone into their front horse pasture. I've never known him to go to the back of their farm, where their barn is and chickens were. They have accused my dog of killing their chickens. They are very wealthy and have sent some of the dead chickens off to obtain DNA samples of whatever killed them, so that they can prosecute, yes prosecute, the owner of that dog. I'm not sure that my dog was even out that day. Plus, my dog was locked up with my chickens the entire day after the event, and my dog had no wounds or blood on him the evening of the attack. I don't have a lot of experience with dogs and chickens, but does it sound like my dog would have killed their chickens? They also said an animal attacked one of their horses earlier, and they indicated that they thought it may have also been my dog. No one actually saw my dog attack or be aggressive with ANY animals. Thanks!

I want to say that a wild predator wouldn't kill for fun without eating the chickens
So it points to a domestic animal (imho) however... That doesn't mean it was YOUR dog. They must have a lot of money if they are DNA sampling their chickens.

I'm not saying that your dog did attack and kill their chickens, but I will say that just because your dog doesn't attack chickens on your property doesn't mean it won't kill chickens elsewhere. I had this exact situation except it was my chickens that were killed by a neighbor's dog. They didn't believe it was their dog because they have chickens that it doesn't kill - until while I was confronting them their dog returned to their property with one of my birds that it had just killed in its mouth.

I think for the safety of your dog and to prevent future accusations you need to remedy whatever is allowing him to get loose, because even if they aren't able to prove your dog killed their birds and even if he really didn't, they now have it in their heads that he did and they will be well within their rights to shoot and kill him if they find him on their property again. As is commonly said, "A dog on its owner's property is pet. A dog on someone elses' property is a predator." So if he gets loose again, his life may be at stake.

Something brought down a doe in another neighbor's yard and didn't eat it. There is no way my ~35 pound dog brought down a doe.

I've remedied my dog getting out - my children letting him out. If it was my dog, I'd gladly replace their chickens or pay them for them. But prosecution? Really???

Lady M said:

I want to say that a wild predator wouldn't kill for fun without eating the chickens
So it points to a domestic animal (imho) however... That doesn't mean it was YOUR dog. They must have a lot of money if they are DNA sampling their chickens.

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I disagree. Some wild animals have been known to kill for fun. Especially if they are on the younger side and still learning the fine art of hunting.

DrDean said:

I've remedied my dog getting out - my children letting him out.  If it was my dog, I'd gladly replace their chickens or pay them for them.  But prosecution?  Really???

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Well, legally they have the right. Whoever's dog did kill their birds probably cost them a lot of money. They lost the bird itself and with that goes all the money that went into raising it, plus all the money it would have made them during its life, whether that be egg sales, chick sales, or meat sales, or just the food it would have provided them, and if it was a show bird that could be a lot of money. For instance I raise a breed that sells for up to $200 a chick - and my hens can lay 60-100 eggs a year each. I'd be out all that money if a dog killed one. So if someone's dog killed the hen and they offered to pay for just her, that's nice, but I just lost up to $20,000 a year in income, theoretically.

So probably they're wanting to recoup their losses and are angry about the fact that an irresponsible dog owner let their animal roam and kill theirs (this is not aimed at you by the way, accidents happen and kids will be kids, but in my situation my neighbors were just letting their dogs roam irresponsibly and I was understandably mad about it, so I can see where your neighbors are coming from). Hopefully the DNA results come back and it wasn't your dog

There is a colony of foxes up the street from their place - a mother and cubs, about 5 cubs. I saw them this evening.

Unless they can prove that it was your dog, they really don't have a legal leg to stand on. They have to either catch your dog in the act or some pretty dang incriminating evidence or else the suit will be thrown out. Even if they sent off a chicken it doesn't mean that there will be usable DNA on the chicken. Especially to be used in court since using non-Human DNA isn't exactly as precise of a science just yet as it is for human DNA.

I doubt that your pooch is to blame, However everything has a boredom threshold and if a bored dog gets to excited like when it sees flying and squawking chickens flopping around and trying to flee, then all previous training goes right out the window.

Buy the way, what is your pooch's genetic background?