Chicken owner charged after shooting dog.

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"609.125 Definition of “livestock.” As used in ORS 609.135 to 609.190, “livestock” means ratites, psittacines, horses, mules, jackasses, cattle, llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, swine, domesticated fowl and any fur-bearing animal bred and maintained commercially or otherwise, within pens, cages and hutches. [1999 c.756 §11]"

Chickens are a domesticated fowl.

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LOL did they print online what the flier with the warning said??? So he's going to warn people that Harris is shooting dogs & yet not warn them to leash their dogs??? I mean if I was sending out such a warning (even if I didn't think I should have to leash a dog) I would be saying "I had my dog off leash & it was shot & killed when it got too close to the Harris' chicken coop. Please everyone keep a closer eye on your dog &/or leash them on walks from now on." & so he's sending out warnings & yet still not going to head his own warning & leash his own dog in the future??? What's the point of the warning if it's not to keep the dogs from running loose & therefore being shot?

Horsejody, my you are a handy lady!

Is there anyway to email that to a Redmond newspaper or other public source in Redmond?

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LOL did they print online what the flier with the warning said??? So he's going to warn people that Harris is shooting dogs & yet not warn them to leash their dogs??? I mean if I was sending out such a warning (even if I didn't think I should have to leash a dog) I would be saying "I had my dog off leash & it was shot & killed when it got too close to the Harris' chicken coop. Please everyone keep a closer eye on your dog &/or leash them on walks from now on." & so he's sending out warnings & yet still not going to head his own warning & leash his own dog in the future??? What's the point of the warning if it's not to keep the dogs from running loose & therefore being shot?

I don't think he is trying to "warn" anyone. I think he is just trying to run the chicken owner down as a dog killer.

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The founding fathers thought that way. They called it "property rights." I live in NC in a decent sized neighborhood. We have a female dog, and a male dog took a liking to her (the bacyard is fenced-in). I had to get my BB gun and pop him in the butt several times, and nobody cared.

I have very high end dogs, too. We had just had extremely expensive knee surgery done at A&M on one of my performance dogs and I had her out in the front yard with me on leash and she was still in her cast. I was carefully and slowly walking her around the front yard so she could pee.

A runner came down the street and I didn't see his dog because it was off leash and running up by the houses. All of a sudden I have this large black dog in my front yard and a dog fight on my hands. I could have spit bullets and would have gladly shot that dog.

The guy just kept jogging down the street and called his dog to come with him. After a couple of minutes the dog left to go with his owner. I was busy trying to see if my dog was OK and if the leg was still OK so I didn't go after the jogger.

Fortunately my dog was only in a lot of pain but basically OK. This incident slowed her recovery by a couple of weeks. There is a leash law in Harris county that is treated all too casually.

I agree with troy, I think he is just harassing the chicken owner.

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I sent this e-mail to the Redmond Police Department

To Whom It May Concern:
I recently read a news article that stated that a Redmond resident was arrested after he shot a dog with a pellet gun. He was charged with discharging a firearm in the city limits. The news article stated that chickens weren't livestock, so he couldn't defend them. Oregon state law defines them as livestock, city code does not. However, I think your officer was mistaken about his right to protect his property. Your city code states:

5.025 Discharge of Weapons.
1. No person other than an authorized peace officer or Airport personnel (designated by
the Airport Manager) controlling animals on the airport, or Public Works employee
(designated by the Public Works Director) exterminating burrowing animals at the
cemetery shall fire or discharge any gun or other weapon, including spring or airactuated
pellet guns, or a weapon which propels a projectile by use of a bow or sling,
explosives, or jet or rocket propulsion.
2. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit firing or discharging any
weapon by any person in the lawful defense or protection of his property, person or
family or at any duly licensed firing range.
3. A violation of this section is punishable as a Class A misdemeanor.
[Section 5.025 amended by Ord. #93-23 passed June 8, 1993]
[Section 5.025 amended by Ord. #98-10 passed January 27, 1998]

As you can see, the code states that he can protect his "property," not just livestock. Oregon State law is also very exact in its wording that a person can protect their livestock from a dog harassing them:

State Law

609.125 Definition of “livestock.” As used in ORS 609.135 to 609.190, “livestock” means ratites, psittacines, horses, mules, jackasses, cattle, llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, swine, domesticated fowl and any fur-bearing animal bred and maintained commercially or otherwise, within pens, cages and hutches. [1999 c.756 §11]

609.150 Right to kill dog that harms or chases livestock. (1) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, any dog, whether licensed or not, which, while off the premises owned or under control of its owner, kills, wounds, or injures any livestock not belonging to the master of such dog, is a public nuisance and may be killed immediately by any person. However, nothing in this section applies to any dog acting under the direction of its master, or the agents or employees of such master

I own pet chickens. Yes, they can be pets. I know through experience that it can be very devastating to have dogs come and kill and/or injure them because some dog owners act in irresponsible ways. A dog doesn't have to be inside the coop to kill or injure them. It just has to be running around the coop acting like it wants to get in. This scares the birds and can often cause them to break their necks as they fly into the sides of their enclosure. That is why most state statues include the term “harassing.” It really doesn't matter if the dog is mean or not. Even if it just wants to play, playing with a dog will kill a chicken. The life of a dog does not take priority over the life any other type of pet.

I'm sending you this message because I hold police officers and departments in very high regard. There are a lot of poultry people in this country, and it is a growing trend. Having a golden retriever invading a yard and killing pet chickens is no different than having a pit bull come into a yard and killing a golden retriever. A pet is a pet. There is a lot of internet talk going on about this incident. Your officers and department will be under scrutiny to see if the actual laws and codes are upheld. Please don't let this injustice to Mr. Harris continue. I'm sure the man was desperate to stop the flow of stray dogs roaming onto his property and harassing his pets.

The article I read didn't mention if the dog owner was ticketed for having his dog roaming off leash. Was he? I know it may seem odd that somebody so far away would care about this, but chicken owners all over the country are following this. There are internet groups with as many as 35,000 members monitoring this situation.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Thank You,
Jody

The dog owner seemed to imply he was walking the dogs, then he stated the one dog didn't return when he called.
Sounds just like our rural neighbors that basically own, "wild" dogs...barely feeding them, not caring if they are in the road, and dropping them off far away from home when they are tired of them.
We are very rural and we have caught 5 dogs and taken them to the humane society ourselves since the owners didn't want the embarrassing task of admitting to the shelter that they just don't want the dog anymore.
My husband picked about 50 ticks off of one before he took it in, so it would look better, this dog was a full blooded border collie...hopefully he got a new home.
One neighbor imparticular had a dog hit by a car and that guy drove past his dead dog on the road for weeks, buzzards finally made it disappear. We shot his other dog who came on our property every single morning for over a year. This dog came on our front porch every single day and urinated on our screen door. We would have taken it to the shelter, but you couldn't get near him. These animals are not neutered and I doubt seriously if they ever had a vaccination of any kind. We also buried his dog. It's sad, but his dogs were just pests, might as well have been coyotes.
We have 5 dogs, two of which came from a pregnant, "drop off" we took in and kept until she died from former internal injuries she had received. Her internals were so damaged, she couldn't be spayed, because we took her for surgery. It was a miracle she gave birth to the 3 puppies we now have 2 of and love very much. We found a home for one, or I'd be saying we have 6 dogs.
Sorry to go on and on, but I finally found a place to vent I guess.

Reading through the comments, someone posted this