Have not learned my lesson / How to put a $ value on my Hens

Once again I find I have not learned my lesson!
We suffered another loose dog attack and I am faced with trying to figure out a $ amount for my beloved friends. We lost 7 Ladies and 2 Roosters in this attack and I am not sure how to price the loss if anyone can help with suggestions I would apreciate it.

We lost
Isabelle- a Gold Laced Standard Cochin Hen

Needle - a White Bantam Cochin Frizzle (frizzled) Hen
Blue - A Self Blue Bantam Cochin Hen

Aurora - A Paint silkie / Bantam Cochin mix Rooster

Chip Chip - A Blue Silkie Roo
Baby Bear - A Blue Silkie Hen

Naomi - A Black Silkie Hen
Tucker - A Black Silkie Hen

Buffy - A Buff Silkie Hen

I am quite sure even though I thought they were the most beautiful of all creatures to me and my granddaughter they were all Pet Quality Friends. I need a fair price for them as I am not looking to charge my neighbor for pain and suffering Just what it would cost to replace them. I know SQ can go for quite a bit of dough, but I am just looking for PQ replacement value.

Thank you for any advice you may have.
Blessings
Jodi

PS
They are all over 1 year old.

Very sorry for your losses... went through similar with our own neighbors...

At over a year old, the hens were all productive layers, that alone in our area is $20-25 per hen... roosters are usually a surplus here though, so maybe $5-10...

Might check out your local Craigslist to see what layers are going for around you...

Thank you so very much
that is about what I have been finding in my searches.
It sounds reasonable.


in truth I think I am more angry with myself than anything else.

I know that feeling... :/

If the neighbor pays compensation - what is he going to do to keep it from happening again? The dog has already learned he had fun at your chickens' expense. He will be back every chance he gets. Are you allowed to shoot dogs attacking your flock - on YOUR property? Even if you never would, you should let him know the law is on your side. I'm sorry you had to lose your best in such a brutal fashion.

I don't think a fair price is called for.
I think the price you set should be punitive. It should make an impression on the dog owner so maybe the will mind their dog.

When you hand them a bill they should go

drumstick diva said:

If the neighbor pays compensation - what is he going to do to keep it from happening again? The dog has already learned he had fun at your chickens' expense. He will be back every chance he gets. Are you allowed to shoot dogs attacking your flock - on YOUR property? Even if you never would, you should let him know the law is on your side. I'm sorry you had to lose your best in such a brutal fashion.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. The dog will be back if given the chance. In my area, dogs attacking property (livestock, pets etc.) and obviously people is a BIG no-no. And most people don't risk letting their dogs run loose purely out of respect for others and their property and the fact that around here, if a dog is caught attacking livestock, it won't return home (and I don't mean it got lost). In fact, one time a loose dog attacked and killed a teacup poodle while it was being walked by its owners. Now mind you, the town I live in everyone knows each other, so we knew whose dog it was and they had been warned multiple times to keep it chained. After the attack, the dog wasn't seen until the next day. Everyone in town with an ATV (including the mayor) hunted that dog down. It wasn't heard from again. I don't know what happened to it (I have a pretty good idea), but the moral of the story is that you spent your valuable time and money into your birds and to have it ruined by someone's negligence and carelessness is inexcusable. I understand accidents happen, but in my experience people that let their dogs run loose are all too often not careful to make sure that it doesn't happen again. I'm sorry for your losses. They sounded like beautiful birds. I hope it all works out for you and regardless, send a CLEAR message to that dog owner that you won't tolerate that dog on your property once more, whether it be taking matters into your own hands, or calling animal control and having the dog hauled away. Best of luck to you.

A court would award " fair market value", if that's any help. Yup I would check out local ads to find what the same ones are selling for.

Sorry to hear of your loss :-(

We had a. similar thing happen over the winter starting in October. Neighbor down the road had two dogs that kept getting out. First they were harrassing the horses. My dad spoke to the family I believe on two occasions quite firmly. My mom actually went outside after one of the kids knocked on our door and found the other children running in the field with the spooked horses trying to catch their dogs. My dad was livid.

We didn't have a problem after that for a while. I think it happened a second time and that time my dad said they MUST do something about their dogs because they cannot harrass our livestock or our dog (We had a 15 year old dog at the time and we were worried about them attacking him while he did his business outside).

We thought they had solved the problem but a few months later the dogs were back and they killed two or three of our birds. Of course, they were all the favorites. This time my dad called animal control and immediately went down to the family and said if the dogs came back, he would be forced to take more drastic measures (He could never actually hurt an animal, but he was very upset). Animal control came and was very nice. Told us to tell him how much they owed for damages and he would tell them they had to pay. My dad declined but told him he wanted the dogs gone or the owners fined. Later that evening, the brother (the actual owner of the dogs) came down to apologize and said he would be taking the dogs and we wouldn't have the issue again. Apparently he lived in an apartment or something and couldn't have dogs which is why his sister was watching them.

We haven't had an issue since, but it was a more difficult situation that I thought. I don't think it is legal to shoot dogs in NJ, so that option is out (And we could not bring ourselves to do that anyway). We could have told them it was hundreds of dollars in damages (And we would have charged them for vet bills if the horses actually got hurt). The dogs did cause the horses to break a fence and I do think we should have charged them for that. The wife did offer to send her husband down to fix it but my dad doesn't like accepting help like that and he was pretty upset about the whole thing. The first time we figured it was just an accident. Things do happen. But after that we were really faced with some difficult decisions.

I do think $20-25 is reasonable in this case. Hopefully, the guilt the owners feel will be enough that they don't let it happen again. I try to look for the good in people, but I realize a lot of people walk around with their heads in the clouds. You did lose a lot of chickens and it is unacceptable for these owners. I do definitely think you are entitled to money. The tricky part is if we ask for too much, they may decline and then you are stuck bringing them to small claims court. Even though it seems right for them to pay a high price, it is not always worth it.