There are many threads on BYC devoted to this topic. Here are my thoughts on the issue.
The question is not what you should do if your neighbor’s dog attacks your livestock (chickens). The real question is, what should your neighbor do?
This question of what should a person do if their animal damages another person's property or person is not a new question. It is an age old question that has existed since people started raising animals. For thousands of years people have raised animals in agrarian cultures and societies around the world. In the US, back when the US was mostly an agrarian culture, there were cultural rules that existed for dealing with these kinds of problems. These rules where founded and based upon the ancient Israeli constitution, back when the Nation of Israel was primarily an agrarian culture. I could quote all the laws from that constitution but it would make this post very long and boring. The basic idea of these laws, was that the owner of the offending animal bore the responsibility of taking action to make amends for their animal’s actions. It also stated that if an owner did not take appropriate measures to prevent their animal from causing destruction to another person’s property, the owner would face severe criminal and civil penalties that could be as sever as the death penalty if their animal killed another person. These laws placed all the burden of control and responsibility of an animal's actions on the owner.
In the US, back when we were an agrarian culture, everyone understood these laws and lived by them, even though they were not actually part of US laws. They simply followed them because they realized that they made perfect sense. Bottom line, they had respect for one another and realized that they were responsible for their animals actions. Unfortunately, the industrial culture that the US has become now is one in which people show no respect for their neighbor and have no understanding and respect for the value livestock. Many modern industrial American dog owners are conceded, prideful, self centered and selfish, with no regard for anyone else or their property. They have no idea of the natural agrarian laws (country law) that governed the US for 200 years. They consider themselves and their selfish desires to be the only thing of importance in the world. They also consider their pets (dogs) to have almost human qualities and view them more as children then they do an animal that they own for their entertainment and pleasure. This is why we have such problems when it comes to these situations where some modern industrial Americans pet kills an agrarian American's livestock. The agrarian American naturally expects the modern industrial American to live by the law of the country and show them proper respect by do the right thing and taking responsibility for their animals action. The modern industrial American on the other hand could careless about his neighbor or his property and only has respect for himself and his property.
So, how should a person handle a situation where their dog attacks someone else animals. Let me give you an example from personal experience about how to handle a situation where your dog causes problems with your neighbors. This is the proper way to handle respond to this situation.
I owned two hunting dogs, a Golden Retriever and an Irish Setter. My wife and children loved these dogs as pets. Next to my farm there is a stretch of pasture that cattle are put on to graze a couple times a year. I keep my dogs are penned, but my wife likes to let them out to run with her when she goes walking, even though I told here repeatedly not to let them out, for fear they might run the neighbors cows. One day she let them out not knowing they had put cows on the land next door and they took off after the cows. She came in all worried about what the owner of the cows would do if he saw them chasing the cows. My response was, “He will shoots them both dead and I will support him. And if I they killed one of his cows, I will shoot them myself and pay him for the cow”. My wife was like, “You are horrible!”. “No I am not, I responded. I told you not to let those hunting dogs out of their pen. But you keep doing it because you want to walk with them. If they die, it will be your fault. Do you remember when those neighbors dog (different neighbor) came on our land and killed 13 of our chickens and you were spitting mad and ordered me to tell the neighbor to keep their dogs penned or tied up or we would shoot them the next time we saw them our land, and our neighbors got all defensive and mad at us and refused to control their dogs because they “Did not like keeping their dogs tied up”. Now the table is reversed and you are acting the same way those neighbors acted when I went to talk to them. I am only treating our neighbor they way you wanted our other neighbors to treat us when their dogs attacked our livestock. You thought they were horrible for not taking responsibility for what their dogs did, and now you are not wanting to take responsibility for what our dogs are doing because you let them out of their pen.”
You see this whole thing is about following the golden rule of treating other people the way we would want to be treated. It is not always easy, but it is the right things to do. I wish to goodness that this modern industrial American society would gain some common sense and would follow the golden rule and respect their neighbor and their property more they love their stupid pets. Sadly, I doubt that will ever happen, and since most laws are made by these same people with warped values, I expect civil laws to become increasingly less favorable to agrarian culture. Unfortunately, we do not live in a culture that respects the Golden Rule anymore. And since the law has become so convoluted and disassociated with these basic and sensable rules of agrarian culture, now we have to resort to taking matters into our own hands.
That leaves us with the 3S rule to defend our livestock. As the founders so aptly put it, we are endowed with certain inalienable right. I believe defense of one's livestock is also an inalienable right against which no laws can justifiably be made. All agrarian cultures that have ever existed agree on this point. The 3S rule is the most effective. If you don’t know what the 3S rules is, I will spell it out for you. SHOOT, SHOVEL & SHUTUP. I am not saying that this a solution for every situation. But, if a dog attacks your chickens and it turns out that the dogs owner is one of these modern industrial Americans that are arrogant, disrespectful and self centered that refuses to follow the Golden Rule, you have no choice but to just shoot the dog quietly and dispose of it and never talk about it with anyone.
P.S. The Benjamin Marauder PCP Air Rifle in the 22 caliber will kill almost any dog and makes no more noise then a spit wad. You could shoot it outside all day with your neighbors in their back yard and they would never know it. Just saying.
The question is not what you should do if your neighbor’s dog attacks your livestock (chickens). The real question is, what should your neighbor do?
This question of what should a person do if their animal damages another person's property or person is not a new question. It is an age old question that has existed since people started raising animals. For thousands of years people have raised animals in agrarian cultures and societies around the world. In the US, back when the US was mostly an agrarian culture, there were cultural rules that existed for dealing with these kinds of problems. These rules where founded and based upon the ancient Israeli constitution, back when the Nation of Israel was primarily an agrarian culture. I could quote all the laws from that constitution but it would make this post very long and boring. The basic idea of these laws, was that the owner of the offending animal bore the responsibility of taking action to make amends for their animal’s actions. It also stated that if an owner did not take appropriate measures to prevent their animal from causing destruction to another person’s property, the owner would face severe criminal and civil penalties that could be as sever as the death penalty if their animal killed another person. These laws placed all the burden of control and responsibility of an animal's actions on the owner.
In the US, back when we were an agrarian culture, everyone understood these laws and lived by them, even though they were not actually part of US laws. They simply followed them because they realized that they made perfect sense. Bottom line, they had respect for one another and realized that they were responsible for their animals actions. Unfortunately, the industrial culture that the US has become now is one in which people show no respect for their neighbor and have no understanding and respect for the value livestock. Many modern industrial American dog owners are conceded, prideful, self centered and selfish, with no regard for anyone else or their property. They have no idea of the natural agrarian laws (country law) that governed the US for 200 years. They consider themselves and their selfish desires to be the only thing of importance in the world. They also consider their pets (dogs) to have almost human qualities and view them more as children then they do an animal that they own for their entertainment and pleasure. This is why we have such problems when it comes to these situations where some modern industrial Americans pet kills an agrarian American's livestock. The agrarian American naturally expects the modern industrial American to live by the law of the country and show them proper respect by do the right thing and taking responsibility for their animals action. The modern industrial American on the other hand could careless about his neighbor or his property and only has respect for himself and his property.
So, how should a person handle a situation where their dog attacks someone else animals. Let me give you an example from personal experience about how to handle a situation where your dog causes problems with your neighbors. This is the proper way to handle respond to this situation.
I owned two hunting dogs, a Golden Retriever and an Irish Setter. My wife and children loved these dogs as pets. Next to my farm there is a stretch of pasture that cattle are put on to graze a couple times a year. I keep my dogs are penned, but my wife likes to let them out to run with her when she goes walking, even though I told here repeatedly not to let them out, for fear they might run the neighbors cows. One day she let them out not knowing they had put cows on the land next door and they took off after the cows. She came in all worried about what the owner of the cows would do if he saw them chasing the cows. My response was, “He will shoots them both dead and I will support him. And if I they killed one of his cows, I will shoot them myself and pay him for the cow”. My wife was like, “You are horrible!”. “No I am not, I responded. I told you not to let those hunting dogs out of their pen. But you keep doing it because you want to walk with them. If they die, it will be your fault. Do you remember when those neighbors dog (different neighbor) came on our land and killed 13 of our chickens and you were spitting mad and ordered me to tell the neighbor to keep their dogs penned or tied up or we would shoot them the next time we saw them our land, and our neighbors got all defensive and mad at us and refused to control their dogs because they “Did not like keeping their dogs tied up”. Now the table is reversed and you are acting the same way those neighbors acted when I went to talk to them. I am only treating our neighbor they way you wanted our other neighbors to treat us when their dogs attacked our livestock. You thought they were horrible for not taking responsibility for what their dogs did, and now you are not wanting to take responsibility for what our dogs are doing because you let them out of their pen.”
You see this whole thing is about following the golden rule of treating other people the way we would want to be treated. It is not always easy, but it is the right things to do. I wish to goodness that this modern industrial American society would gain some common sense and would follow the golden rule and respect their neighbor and their property more they love their stupid pets. Sadly, I doubt that will ever happen, and since most laws are made by these same people with warped values, I expect civil laws to become increasingly less favorable to agrarian culture. Unfortunately, we do not live in a culture that respects the Golden Rule anymore. And since the law has become so convoluted and disassociated with these basic and sensable rules of agrarian culture, now we have to resort to taking matters into our own hands.
That leaves us with the 3S rule to defend our livestock. As the founders so aptly put it, we are endowed with certain inalienable right. I believe defense of one's livestock is also an inalienable right against which no laws can justifiably be made. All agrarian cultures that have ever existed agree on this point. The 3S rule is the most effective. If you don’t know what the 3S rules is, I will spell it out for you. SHOOT, SHOVEL & SHUTUP. I am not saying that this a solution for every situation. But, if a dog attacks your chickens and it turns out that the dogs owner is one of these modern industrial Americans that are arrogant, disrespectful and self centered that refuses to follow the Golden Rule, you have no choice but to just shoot the dog quietly and dispose of it and never talk about it with anyone.
P.S. The Benjamin Marauder PCP Air Rifle in the 22 caliber will kill almost any dog and makes no more noise then a spit wad. You could shoot it outside all day with your neighbors in their back yard and they would never know it. Just saying.
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