Neighbour attracting foxes

[The Moonshiner]

If your chickens are in a bear proof enclosure why you worried about the foxes?
Rehome your dog? Doesn't sound needed and is the issue.

 

[Goldenwahintofboss]

This is a bit of a weird one and I'm not sure what to do

Sparing unnecessary details our neighbors refuse to stop feeding the foxes

Now I'm going to try and answer all the obvious questions in this space here.
The coop is literally bear proof. It's been tested, I know. There have not been any successful attacks since we got our LSG. Further to that, yes, and he is a natural, too good. I'll get to that in a minute. Yes I tried talking to them. Yes I called the ministry. No I did not choose to get them involved, yet, that is still very much an option. In my region we are going into winter. I live rurally. I do not want to kill any foxes.

Now. The situation is that the neighbors are attracting foxes to their house and my dog turned out to be an expert. He took to chasing away predators without even being trained. This leads him to the neighbors yard and their aggressive and perpetually tied up bigger dog. I do my absolute best to keep him in our yard. He is very responsive to recall commands. He is in no way interested in going outside the property. Unless there's a fox. Both dogs actually. LSG runs and the little one points and barks.

TLDR
Neighbors attract foxes
LSG does his job
Neighbour gets mad
Winter soon, foxes will become more of a problem
Ministry told me to give up his name and they'll investigate or I can shoot them, the foxes
1 Debating neutralizing the lot of them as they're dependant now
2 Debating giving him up and being labeled a rat in this small community. Won't do anything about the foxes
3 Left field alternative option, just saturating the area the foxes regularly come from with bear spray. May deter foxes, should stop LSG from trying to find them. Might aggravate chickens. Is perfectly legal. Still doesn't really solve the problem

What do?

And just to make it abundantly clear, my dog absolutely does not seek out their property for any reason at all. He's running off foxes. When he's called, he comes right back

You can only control your reactions. So I would report to ministry to cover your own property concerns. Keep your dog safe there. If the fox is Def trying to kill your chicken's, make them into boots or a nice hat. The ministry doesn't rat. They just say they are aware of foxes being fed. They don't return. Over and over unless they get fed. They will bring more foxes with them soon. So Def fix it now. Who cares what people think. Your protecting your own animals.

 

[Captain13]

I have a fox den on my land that I do nothing about, because the foxes are largely unable to catch my chickens. I'm aware you're in a significantly colder climate than myself, however there may still be breeds of chicken you can raise without overt concern of predation

My American Gamefowl are highly predator alert and with an LGD they have almost no concern over foxes. I've watched a fox raid on many occasions and they catch nothing. One time I even saw a broody hen attack a fox to save her babies, and they all survived without injury

I don't even think they're coming here anymore honestly. I think they're killing my neighbors chickens because they have fat, unathletic breeds and I hear dying noises over there occasionally

Consider raising tough chickens?

If a fox comes in contact with a dog here in Georgia, the dog has to be quarantined in a state approve kennel (cement slab fenced with a roof and house) for ten days due to the rabies problem. Cost of the kennel to be built is around $1500. So it’s not only chickens in danger here, but my Border Collies as well. I had to eliminate a fox a while back because she was coming to the the yard fence trying to get to the dogs.

 

[Another leaf]

There are some dogs that don't respect or understand fences or are just escape artists, but they are in the minority. Thankfully, most dogs will stay inside their fence, even though they could get out if they really wanted to. The dog inside the fence should stop (most of) the foxes from coming through. It's worked well here for many years with only very few exceptions.

IMO if you own a dog you need to keep it confined to your property, no ifs, ands or buts.

As much as I didn't want to hear "just build a fence" it's apparent that it actually is tge quick and dirty option. I cant really justify the other options from what I gathered from this. If I slam a few stakes in the ground and put something between them, as flimsy as it'll be it will temporarily fix the problem and buy me time. Further, it would be beneficial to see how a fence would work with the setup here so a more permanent fence can be better laid out.

We've had bear and coyotes try their luck out back before so maybe if I see where they break in from it will help design a better system

 

[Geena]

As much as I didn't want to hear "just build a fence" it's apparent that it actually is tge quick and dirty option. I cant really justify the other options from what I gathered from this. If I slam a few stakes in the ground and put something between them, as flimsy as it'll be it will temporarily fix the problem and buy me time. Further, it would be beneficial to see how a fence would work with the setup here so a more permanent fence can be better laid out.

We've had bear and coyotes try their luck out back before so maybe if I see where they break in from it will help design a better system

It really is the best option, in the end you don't really have a fox or a neighbor problem, it's simply a dog containment problem. Personally, I wouldn't spend the time, effort and money to put up something temporary that you'll just have to take down again to put up a real fence. Four foot chicken wire or whatever is going to cost you almost as much as 48" 2 x 4 welded wire. Just a hundred foot of welded wire fencing and T-posts should only be about $200. IMO that would be money well spent to resolve the neighbor situation and give you some peace of mind.

 

[Red Mangrove]

If a fox comes in contact with a dog here in Georgia, the dog has to be quarantined in a state approve kennel (cement slab fenced with a roof and house) for ten days due to the rabies problem. Cost of the kennel to be built is around $1500. So it’s not only chickens in danger here, but my Border Collies as well. I had to eliminate a fox a while back because she was coming to the the yard fence trying to get to the dogs.

The state exaggerates everything for a reason to involve itself in private business and steal money from citizens. If rabies was a genuine issue then foxes would be extinct because it's a virus with 100% lethality

The red foxes here are beautiful and very large, and they cause zero issues. I actually heard them running around last night making their black metal shrieks. As usual they left my chickens and dogs alone, despite my chickens all sleeping outside

I would personally recommend raising tougher dog breeds if you have fox issues. Same with chicken breeds. The foxes already ate all of my stupid chickens years ago and now they can't catch anything here so they don't even try. Natural selection

 

[NatJ]

If a fox comes in contact with a dog here in Georgia, the dog has to be quarantined in a state approve kennel (cement slab fenced with a roof and house) for ten days due to the rabies problem.

Do you have a link to the law that requires that?

I have seen other states require a 6-month quarantine for a dog exposed to rabies (because rabies has a very long incubation period, and it takes that long to know if the dog actually got rabies.)

And I have seen 10-day quarantines for a dog that bites someone (because if the dog does not show symptoms in 10 days, it was not contagious at the time of the bite).

But a 10-day quarantine after possible exposure just does not make sense. It's not long enough to tell if the dog actually got rabies from the exposure.

 

[Geena]

The state exaggerates everything for a reason to involve itself in private business and steal money from citizens. If rabies was a genuine issue then foxes would be extinct because it's a virus with 100% lethality

The red foxes here are beautiful and very large, and they cause zero issues. I actually heard them running around last night making their black metal shrieks. As usual they left my chickens and dogs alone, despite my chickens all sleeping outside

I would personally recommend raising tougher dog breeds if you have fox issues. Same with chicken breeds. The foxes already ate all of my stupid chickens years ago and now they can't catch anything here so they don't even try. Natural selection

That's all well and good if raising chickens is just a hobby. But a lot of us here prefer our "stupid" chickens that provide us with plenty of eggs and meat, making predation an ongoing concern.
You don't think rabies is a genuine issue?
My husband was bit by a rabid fox, I can assure you that it IS a very real and serious issue.

 

[Red Mangrove]

That's all well and good if raising chickens is just a hobby. But a lot of us here prefer our "stupid" chickens that provide us with plenty of eggs and meat, making predation an ongoing concern.
You don't think rabies is a genuine issue?
My husband was bit by a rabid fox, I can assure you that it IS a very real and serious issue.

Statistically speaking some people will encounter rabies but I doubt it's anywhere near as common as organizations with an incentive to lie would imply

In my long life I've only encountered a single rabid animal, a bat

 

[Geena]

Statistically speaking some people will encounter rabies but I doubt it's anywhere near as common as organizations with an incentive to lie would imply

In my long life I've only encountered a single rabid animal, a bat

I agree, statistically the average person in the US is unlikely to come into contact with a rabid animal, but that's because we do regulate and vaccinate. Unfortunately in other parts of the world a significant number of people still die from rabies every year.

No doubt it would be a real pain to quarantine your dog every time they came into contact with an animal that could potentially have rabies. That's not something I've ever heard of or practiced, but I do make sure they are always up to date on their vaccines, because they do love to hunt critters.

I'm not sure how lying about rabies would benefit anyone, but since it is an incurable, fatal disease even if they did it wouldn't bother me too much. We have plenty of other, bigger, fish to fry in this country at the moment