Texas

[bnjrob]

I just needed to get something off my mind.
Over the last few weeks our adult flock of 25 hens and 2 roosters has been killed off to 18 hens and not by choice. Our neighbor's dogs, 2 properties over, has come onto our property and killed our birds. The first time they killed 3 hens and 1 rooster, and wounded another hen (2 weeks ago), 5 days later they killed another 2 hens, then yesterday we were pulling onto the property and saw one of the 2 dogs carrying off one of our hens. My husband chased him and screamed at him. The dog dropped the hen, we thought she was dead but she jumped up and ran back to our property. They did kill our other rooster and 2 more hens. My husband was able to talk with the neighbor and explained to her what was going on. She said that she would pay for the damages, my husband explained that we were not looking for her money, we want her to keep her dogs on her property so they will stop killing our chickens. He also explained that if the dogs do come back on our property that they will be killed.
Would you do something differently?

Yes, it's called fencing. There are problems with people who let their animals run loose all the time. But that is not the dog's fault, that is the fault of a poor owner of the owner. Dogs have a prey drive and a bird running around looks like great fun to chase and even kill. It's their nature to do so. If you had a dog and it got loose at some point, would you want someone to kill it? I doubt it. I know that I would not want someone to hurt or kill my dogs if they were to get out of the backyard, simply because my dogs got excited and decided to chase someone's birds. My dogs have killed some of our birds. Because the birds were stupid enough to fly into the backyard where the dogs are kept. Did I kill my dogs? No. They were doing what comes naturally, which is why I keep my dogs fenced in and away from the poultry - it's not the dogs' faults that the birds were dumb enough to fly over into the dogs' territory. This year I lost nearly $1000 worth of turkeys to someone's dog. I had an electric poultry fence up but the dog managed to find one weak point and knocked over a support post enough to be able to jump the electric fence. It was a total turkey slaughter and I had live turkeys with body parts like wings literally falling off in my hands. I was horrified. But I know that my dogs could be capable of such a thing if they were given a chance to get near a turkey. So I have been tearing out our barbed wire fencing that runs the perimeter of our 5 acres and have been replacing it with field fencing, so that a dog/coyote will have to either dig under or climb over the fence if they want to get to our birds badly enough. Yes, it is expensive and it is time consuming to do, but I cannot penalize a dog for doing something that comes naturally to it - like chasing and killing poultry. And if it were my dog, I'd want someone to show my dog mercy.

 

[kajira]

Yes, it's called fencing. There are problems with people who let their animals run loose all the time. But that is not the dog's fault, that is the fault of a poor owner of the owner. Dogs have a prey drive and a bird running around looks like great fun to chase and even kill. It's their nature to do so. If you had a dog and it got loose at some point, would you want someone to kill it? I doubt it. I know that I would not want someone to hurt or kill my dogs if they were to get out of the backyard, simply because my dogs got excited and decided to chase someone's birds. My dogs have killed some of our birds. Because the birds were stupid enough to fly into the backyard where the dogs are kept. Did I kill my dogs? No. They were doing what comes naturally, which is why I keep my dogs fenced in and away from the poultry - it's not the dogs' faults that the birds were dumb enough to fly over into the dogs' territory. This year I lost nearly $1000 worth of turkeys to someone's dog. I had an electric poultry fence up but the dog managed to find one weak point and knocked over a support post enough to be able to jump the electric fence. It was a total turkey slaughter and I had live turkeys with body parts like wings literally falling off in my hands. I was horrified. But I know that my dogs could be capable of such a thing if they were given a chance to get near a turkey. So I have been tearing out our barbed wire fencing that runs the perimeter of our 5 acres and have been replacing it with field fencing, so that a dog/coyote will have to either dig under or climb over the fence if they want to get to our birds badly enough. Yes, it is expensive and it is time consuming to do, but I cannot penalize a dog for doing something that comes naturally to it - like chasing and killing poultry. And if it were my dog, I'd want someone to show my dog mercy.

I got rid of my dogs that killed my birds. Found them homes with people who didn't have birds, and had a good fenced yard and no livestock.

I now have dogs that don't kill birds. I will not keep a dog that intentionally goes after birds. If it accidentally happens some how, I can understand, but if they intentionally go after birds, they can't stay. It's not fair to my kids, my birds, me, or the dogs.

Including a life stock guardian dog who protects my birds.

I cannot imagine hoping a fence would keep a determined dog out. It's why I have a jack *** pony who hates dogs on one side of my fences, goats with my birds who hate dogs and will headbutt any dogs who come near them, the fences, or the birds, a live stock guardian dog who sleeps with my birds, electric fences, and I'll shoot anything that my great pyr doesn't kill first.

If I lost 1000 dollars worth of live stock to a dog, someone would be paying for it, or their dog would.

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Even my husband's high prey-drive working dog, wouldn't dream of killing our animals. He knows better. ^.^

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This is right before the goat headbutted the fence and chased him away, but you can see my turkey's LOL

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry @bnjrob but you are welcome to your opinion. Owning a dog is a responsibility. If an owner is not responsible enough to control his dog and that dog repeatedly harasses or kills my animals, especially after the owner has been told of the situation, it will be shot. It is my responsibility to protect my animals/livestock and I do have fencing. However, fencing is a short deterrent to a determined dog or wild predator. The reason many places in TX make it the land owners responsibility to protect his animals from other animals coming onto his property is because of the "ancient" free range practices. They correct for that by allowing a land owner to destroy any animal harming their livestock on their own property.

I don't subscribe to your logic or reasoning. If you don't want your "pet" shot, then keep it under control on your property, via dog run, long line, fencing, whatever. Once a dog has killed once, it can never again be trusted - period. I will show the dog mercy... I'll kill it swiftly and humanely. It won't even know it's dead and it will be.

 

[buggal]

Yes, it's called fencing. There are problems with people who let their animals run loose all the time. But that is not the dog's fault, that is the fault of a poor owner of the owner. Dogs have a prey drive and a bird running around looks like great fun to chase and even kill. It's their nature to do so. If you had a dog and it got loose at some point, would you want someone to kill it? I doubt it. I know that I would not want someone to hurt or kill my dogs if they were to get out of the backyard, simply because my dogs got excited and decided to chase someone's birds. My dogs have killed some of our birds. Because the birds were stupid enough to fly into the backyard where the dogs are kept. Did I kill my dogs? No. They were doing what comes naturally, which is why I keep my dogs fenced in and away from the poultry - it's not the dogs' faults that the birds were dumb enough to fly over into the dogs' territory. This year I lost nearly $1000 worth of turkeys to someone's dog. I had an electric poultry fence up but the dog managed to find one weak point and knocked over a support post enough to be able to jump the electric fence. It was a total turkey slaughter and I had live turkeys with body parts like wings literally falling off in my hands. I was horrified. But I know that my dogs could be capable of such a thing if they were given a chance to get near a turkey. So I have been tearing out our barbed wire fencing that runs the perimeter of our 5 acres and have been replacing it with field fencing, so that a dog/coyote will have to either dig under or climb over the fence if they want to get to our birds badly enough. Yes, it is expensive and it is time consuming to do, but I cannot penalize a dog for doing something that comes naturally to it - like chasing and killing poultry. And if it were my dog, I'd want someone to show my dog mercy.

I believe we have showed mercy, we have spoken to the owner of the dogs and explained the situation. She understands. Yes I have dogs myself and if someone approached me and told me that my dogs had done what these dogs have done, I would make sure they could never get out, but these dogs run loose. I am in the process of training my dogs not kill the chickens but protect them. This takes time and I am being responsible by keeping them fenced in away from my chickens. Since the first attack we have put up fencing between our property line and the next door neighbors and the dogs are going around it. We have not yet enclosed all 3 acres of our property (it's a money thing) and yes we are planning on fencing off the entire area. But being a responsible owner means taking care of your dogs too. If your kid went over and killed a bunch of chickens would you say well they are just being kids, and do nothing about it? No I am not saying kill the kids but there has to be consequences. If it was a coyote or a bob cat no one would think twice about killing it.
And just to make sure I read your post right so if a dog comes onto your property and kills your turkeys, you will do nothing but put up fencing, and if they come back and kill more you will do nothing but put up more fencing, and if they do it a third time you will still do nothing but put up fencing? Because a dog is just doing what comes naturally to them. That seem to me as if you are not willing to take care of your property, including your birds. If there is a threat to your property or your family would you not protect it? Yes I am understanding you by saying put up a fence, and I am doing that, but as you stated if they want it bad enough they will find a way. That is fine, but I too will find a way to protect my flock, my family and my property.
I don't mean to come off as a gun toting wild woman but I was born and raised in TX and I do believe that my property is mine to protect whether it be a dog coming after my flock or an intruder breaking into my house.
I also want to thank you for your post. I was really on the fence about how I felt about having to kill a dog. Your post has helped me come to terms with what may happen and I know that was not your intention but you have helped me find clarity in the situation. I was hung up on it being a DOG, someones pet, but in this case it is that but it is also a predictor that is hurting my flock.

 

[buggal]

Sorry @bnjrob but you are welcome to your opinion. Owning a dog is a responsibility. If an owner is not responsible enough to control his dog and that dog repeatedly harasses or kills my animals, especially after the owner has been told of the situation, it will be shot. It is my responsibility to protect my animals/livestock and I do have fencing. However, fencing is a short deterrent to a determined dog or wild predator. The reason many places in TX make it the land owners responsibility to protect his animals from other animals coming onto his property is because of the "ancient" free range practices. They correct for that by allowing a land owner to destroy any animal harming their livestock on their own property.

I don't subscribe to your logic or reasoning. If you don't want your "pet" shot, then keep it under control on your property, via dog run, long line, fencing, whatever. Once a dog has killed once, it can never again be trusted - period. I will show the dog mercy... I'll kill it swiftly and humanely. It won't even know it's dead and it will be.

Latestarter You said it a lot better than I did. You are right on with everything you said.
Thank you for your wise words.

 

[needlessjunk]

No one gets pleasure killing someone's pet. It is something I hope never to have to do but i have a responsibility to protect my birds. Just because your dog does something natural doesn't mean it's right. If you have a rooster attack you do you keep it around just because it was doing something natural? Or a rattlesnake that bites you? Or do you protect yourself and your birds?

 

[kajira]

No one gets pleasure killing someone's pet. It is something I hope never to have to do but i have a responsibility to protect my birds. Just because your dog does something natural doesn't mean it's right. If you have a rooster attack you do you keep it around just because it was doing something natural? Or a rattlesnake that bites you? Or do you protect yourself and your birds?

I agree 100% with this. Rattle snakes are killed on sight. If my rooster attacks me, i'd break it's neck or shoot it, too depending on the situation. Animals who attack other living things, cannot exist around people, kids, birds, etc.

My roosters so far, have not had a mean one. They respect me, and I respect them. I teach my kids, animals and others to respect everyone else, too.

I just rehomed a dog because she was abandoned and left with our house by the previous owner. We let her live her, until it was clear that she was going to cause more harm, than good. We found her a place to be where she could be happy, and not get other animals killed by disregarding fences, chasing our pony/goats, and riling up the other dogs and teaching them to ignore fences/boundaries.

The previous owner left her behind because she got every other dog they had killed/hit by a car, because she had zero respect for fences and would get every dog to follow her. Living in the country, we tentatively hoped that we could give her a good home and continue to care for her, but she was teaching my daughters dog to leave our fence line, and he won't do that if he wasn't following her. My daughters last dog followed her out of our yard and disappeared and never came back. So... yep. Even though she wasn't actively aggressive, or mean, she was causing animals to be harmed and I have a responsibility to protect everyone else. Including my kid's happiness and assuring the safety of her personal pets.

I rehomed my bulldog, that was my baby, after he killed a chicken. As much as I wanted him, I couldn't justify keeping him when my daughter expressed how important the safety of her birds were to me.

The compromise was, I got a dog I could trust with her birds, and put the effort and training into our great pyr to assure their safety, and my joy in having a nice, big, protective dog.

I had to adjust what kind of dogs I had, too, when living in the country. It was important to make sure that I had the ability to trust my dogs with my birds, if I was going to let them out there.

Ironically, the other day, a chicken ran through the middle of the dogs when they were playing. This is the example of a good dog, vs a bad dog right here.

They were ALL amped up, chasing each other, playing, and a chicken ran in the middle of the fray. They pounced on the chicken, thinking it was my daughter's small chi-pug mix (same coloring.) brown/black. As soon as they realized it wasn't a dog, they stopped and let it go.

It was unharmed, but that to me, is a good dog. I wouldn't have blamed the dogs in that situation for killing a chicken - but as soon as they realized it wasn't a dog, they immediately stopped what they were doing and let it go.

The chicken was mildly emotionally traumatized, but otherwise unharmed.

My daughters Chi-pug mix, chases our chickens, but doesn't bite them. he has a game with one of my chickens, Astrid - where he chases her around the yard, then he stops, and waits, and she chases him back. Since she doesn't attack him, or hurt him, and he doesn't attack, or hurt her, I assume this game of theirs is okay, or the rooster would kick his butt, since he's protective of the girls and he allows the dog to play with her.

 

[sasafras4u2]

my ayam has gone broody....what to do hatch or not hatch. will she just stop sitting if I keep taking the eggs? it freaking December for goodness sake!

 

[sasafras4u2]

 

[sasafras4u2]