(GRAPHIC) Neighbor's dog got through my fences, killed them ALL

[McChooky]

I wish my saying I'm sorry could undo the damage ,unfortunately it can't!All I can say is most of us know how you feel because we've experienced this or something similar or know someone else who has. Put the past behind you,move forward and above all buy more chickens! Starting over fresh gives you the opportunity to do things a different way so you'll be successful next time. Predator proof coops and runs require one or more layers of 1/2" hardware cloth over every opening, vent and window and you can always add electric fencing around them. Adding welded wire or chain link over top of hardware cloth makes a great coop.Best wishes to you!

 

[mra]

Even if you choose not to raise chickens again, I would still go through the motions if you can; any money you get can be donated or go to other house projects. They can't keep acting like they don't know anything. Maybe pay for a high sturdy fence. Good fences make good neighbors.

 

[mra]

Sorry for your loss. I am less than a year with the 10 I inherited. I just lost my first one; we think by a dog, because she was not eaten; just played with, with her feathers in a circle all around her. Coincidentally, the day before & the day after she died, we saw the neighbors dog by the coop in the morning. She, of course, was my favorite one. I feel guilty.

 

[McChooky]

But that's so not fair! Where's the lawyer? Where's the judgment? You have absolute right to report them! Even if it's not about the chickens, their dogs are invading ILLEGALLY YOUR property! And can't that neighbor KEEP TRACK OF WHERE THEIR DOGS ARE GOING? I thought it was illegal and it counts as invading other people's privacy/property!

Chickens are personal property and the dogs owner is liable .They can be sued for damages in civil court if the OP would wish to pursue it.

 

[McChooky]

In Nova Scotia if a dog is actively attacking/attacked livestock, it may be shot. I likely would if I caught one in the act where we live.

Your type of loss actually happened to us several years back.
Our squatter neighbor let his shih tzu loose from his oil-tarred shack - it ran into our barn, tore into our chicken-wired stall and ripped most of our special cross meat/layer to shreds, then stayed there to be found by us shortly thereafter laying down at the scene of the crime, panting satisfied up at us with a bloody-toothed smile.
We caught the damed thing and put it is a spare stall, then called the dogcatcher. Dogcatcher came and got the tale from us, we told him exactly where the dog came from. The man went to the neighbor, asked him if it was his dog, he said no, it was the neighbor up the road's dog (a toothless old ancient lab). Dogcatcher took the dog. Next day he called to tell us it didn't belong to the fella up the road (you don't say?) and what did we want done? I said the dog had been loose several times before, it always ran straight to our driveway, and we'd returned it. Well this time, with the toll on our birds, we told the catcher we wanted it put down. It was.
Two years later the neighbor had another much larger dog get loose, and come over into our barn. We cornered that in anothrr stall in our barn (no birds harmed) and this time called the RCMP to come to escort the man on our property to retrieve the animsl. Dumbass man then said, 'how come you had my dog killed last time?' Snort. I said, 'you told the dogcatcher it wasn't your dog, and we knew it fidn't belong to so-in-so, and it was loose here before, so we asked for it to be put down. We would have returned that dog to you the same way we are THIS one if you hadn't lied. Now, since you admit it WAS your dog, you can pay for our dead chickens."
We arranged for him to drop the money off at the mountie detachment so we would not have to deal with him.

Every dog has his day!LOL

 

[DatCampG]

One of our neighbors (or possibly their idiot, home alone older teenaged children) who have been asked several times to keep their dogs (they have 2) off our property has once again decided to just let them run free. I saw one of the dogs a couple of times this week but was too busy to try and get hold of neighbor AGAIN, besides, our birds were inside some good fences (I thought).

About 3:30pm of 5/29/21 I went past the chicken yard and their dog had broken in, it was happily tossing around and tearing up the dead birds. It saw me, ran back out through the dammaged fence and beelined towards its owners home.

I could see feathers and dead birds all over both their yard and the orchard.

We have an 8' tall anti deer fenced orchard next to chicken yard which has a pop door open during summer so birds can free range, safe from anything but hawks. Orchard fence has an additional 4' tall heavy plastic coated chicken wire reinforcement at bottom, dug into the ground a foot.

Only thing that ever penetrated this before was a BEAR last September, which tore open a corner of fence, ate all the windfall fruit + all the low hanging fruit, then wormed into the chicken coop and ate all the chicken feed- But didn't harm any birds. A vegetarian black bear?

Dog had managed to tear the top edge of chicken wire away from the plastic anti deer fence. This break was in the orchard fencing, a section where I had used zip ties to quickly assemble the fences and NOT GONE BACK OVER IT WITH ADDITIONAL STAINLESS STEEL TIES OR WIRES FOR LONG TERM DURABILITY. I found some of the ties could be broken with my fingers now, 3 years later. Guess the dog did too.

*NOTE TO OTHER CHICKEN OWNERS:

Plastic zip ties are degraded by ultra violet light (UV) in sunlight. They get weaker the longer they are out in the sun, DO NOT use them for any long term fence installation unless you follow up with stainless steel wire, hog rings or similar METAL fastenings.

Called the sheriff and showed the deputy the scene. He said he'd talk to neighbor about their dogs running free and get back to me. I have heard nothing more about it.

These two images are of the same flock, one taken Friday, the other Saturday. Less than 24 hours apart. First picture, they are all out enjoying life in the orchard, you can see open door to chicken yard in the background.

Second, I'm about to bury them in the garden. Yes, the rifle is in case rover comes back.


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I know I have been there. It is a great loss. My situation was I had a coop full of laying hens and some dog came along and killed fifty-two. There is no legal recourse in Texas in this situation. I talked to a sheriff in my county and was told to shoot the dog while it is on my property. That is the only legal method of rectifying the situation in my area according to law. Due to your owners ignorance or stupidity unfortunately YOU ARE A DEAD DOG!!!

 

[DatCampG]

smidge off topic, but who determines cost of birds killed? Is it the current price of day olds at the nearest feedstore? The current price of that breed's day olds from the nearest supplier (with or without shipping?)? The current price of a bird of laying age if the birds were laying or about to lay? I just ask because I find it had to believe that it would actually be the cost of the birds and not "Here's two 3$ chicks cause my dog ate your extremely rare and incredably expensive dong Tao pair that had gone through 2 weeks of brooding and now they're gone and the nest is smashed" (or some other super hard to get and expensive breed)

Investment alone plus laying chickens for the year are worth $100 each.

 

[McChooky]

I know I have been there. It is a great loss. My situation was I had a coop full of laying hens and some dog came along and killed fifty-two. There is no legal recourse in Texas in this situation. I talked to a sheriff in my county and was told to shoot the dog while it is on my property. That is the only legal method of rectifying the situation in my area according to law. Due to your owners ignorance or stupidity unfortunately YOU ARE A DEAD DOG!!!

As the owner of the layers you have a valid right to file a claim for damages if you know who owns the dog (or did at the time of the attack)A lawsuit would have to be filed to recover any damages unless Texas requires the chickens to be a specific type of fence.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Investment alone plus laying chickens for the year are worth $100 each.

But who determines that, and how? I have some birds that I pages 100 for as chicks, and others that were free as choxks, are they all worth the same price of a dog wiped out one of my groups?

 

[McChooky]

But who determines that, and how? I have some birds that I pages 100 for as chicks, and others that were free as choxks, are they all worth the same price of a dog wiped out one of my groups?

You present the court with documentation such as receipts showing what you have in your birds, police reports of the incident(s) photos of live birds before the incident and dead birds at the scene .Game camera footage on an sd card helps. Receipts for replacement birds and repairs to the coop are reimbursed unless you can't prove their dog killed them.