21 Expensive Chickens Killed By 2 Dogs

[FourShuesFarm]

I had 2 local dogs get lose and kill a whole bunch of my chicken. These chicken represented 3 generations of breeding Breese here in my town.

The animal control didn't show up, but the local PD, the animal control was closed. Bottom line is the city gave the dogs owner a ticket, and I'm on my own to collect damages.

What's the best way to do this. I spoke to.the dogs owners, but husband doesn't seem too keen on this whole situation. Am to go to my county courthouse and file a lawsuit?

How much do I say the birds are worth? Is all my time in breeding worth nothing? Is my anguish and kids anguish with nothing?

I don't really know how to start here. I started with a dozen hatching eggs 2 years ago. I lost everything, and It was awful.

Please, anyone who's been through this, it knows how the laws work with respect to this kind of thing, please chime in.

Thanks, Tom

 

[Shadowfire]

The neighbors have a cat that killed 12 of my chickens. They are pet chickens and each one is very special, they are four years old. The people across the street have an annoying dog that always comes in our yard and pees on the plants and chases the chickens. So yeah, I know how you feel. The best way to protect your chooks against this is to get them an enclosed run, get a very, very tall fence, or have understanding neighbors. Have you ever seen one of those water-guns on posts that chase away deer, dogs, and cats? Maybe you could get one that only shoots large animals.
Sorry about your chickens.
Good luck!

 

[DobieLover]

I had 2 local dogs get lose and kill a whole bunch of my chicken. These chicken represented 3 generations of breeding Breese here in my town.

The animal control didn't show up, but the local PD, the animal control was closed. Bottom line is the city gave the dogs owner a ticket, and I'm on my own to collect damages.

What's the best way to do this. I spoke to.the dogs owners, but husband doesn't seem too keen on this whole situation. Am to go to my county courthouse and file a lawsuit?

How much do I say the birds are worth? Is all my time in breeding worth nothing? Is my anguish and kids anguish with nothing?

I don't really know how to start here. I started with a dozen hatching eggs 2 years ago. I lost everything, and It was awful.

Please, anyone who's been through this, it knows how the laws work with respect to this kind of thing, please chime in.

Thanks, Tom

I'm very sorry for your loss. That must have been just awful.

I don't know how the laws are in your area regarding livestock. Where I am, livestock is considered property. The law has no compensation for emotional loss which is usually 10x the financial one.

Because you lost 3 generations of breeding stock, I would think you could build a case for that financial loss as well as the loss from future sales of the chicks you would have hatched out and sold. You would have to estimate how many broods of chicks you could have raised and sold for X dollars. Add on how much it would cost to replace your breeding stock. There may be some precedent somewhere that would tell you the value of your birds, but probably not as value tends to be breed/quality specific.

Get a copy of the police report and take lots of pictures of the devastation the dogs did. If you have any receipts from sales of your birds, that would help too. Even feed receipts might help. You invested all that feed money into your birds and in one fell swoop, they're gone.

You will have to sue in small claims court.

I hope things work out for you. Again, I'm really sorry you went through this because of a preventable predator attack. I can understand a wild predator but all dogs are to be controlled by their owners. It is plain and simply inexcusable when a dog kills someones pet. They never should have had the opportunity to do so.

 

[BlueBaby]

Irresponsible dog owner's is why I keep my flock contained to the coop and the totally enclosed run that is attached to it. Too many dog's get loose around here.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I have not been exactly in your shoes. The value of your chickens will be based on replacement costs only!
Extremely UNFAIR!!
Yet it’s the law. They do not count the time or effort in breeding. The emotional gets you zero. I WOULD file a suit just to make a point and for my voice to be heard.
I live in a area where it’s understood that your dog will be shot. And yes we do.
Irresponsible dog owners infuriate me.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I think we all here @BYC share in your heartache.
Personally I would love to know your final outcome.
Again truly so sorry for your tragic loss.

 

[Compost King]

this happened to me 6 time this summer, killed off so many breeding projects. Same 2 dogs from the same owner. The last attack was created by animal control who let the dogs out of my neighbors chicken pen and they ran across the street into mine and he sat on his big giant behind and did nothing to round up the dogs. I came out and told him about these dogs in the back yard and he was too busy writing a citation over those dogs to grab them. Apparently he wasn't allowed to take the dogs into custody without the consent of the owner. Eventually the owner surrendered the dogs to animal control only to have the adopted back out. She got out of paying any fines by doing this and then bought more dogs. One of the times I made a complaint with Animal Control the idiot working there said "Oh he is just playing with them" in reality these dogs tore the chickens apart.
One time is a mistake, 6 times should be criminal negligence (10 including attacks on neighbors chickens). I too was told I have to take them to court. Maybe I can get a dollar per chicken or something silly like that... not even worth he effort. Luckily my neighbor is sueing and I think she is even lying about what breeds she has which normally I am not in favor of but anything to get it into peoples heads that they need to solve their own dog problem the first time and not wait for 10 different attacks and citations piling up to suddenly realize you can't handle a couple of dog.

 

[MissChick@dee]

*S*S*S*

 

[chickenMamee]

this happened to me 6 time this summer, killed off so many breeding projects. Same 2 dogs from the same owner. The last attack was created by animal control who let the dogs out of my neighbors chicken pen and they ran across the street into mine and he sat on his big giant behind and did nothing to round up the dogs. I came out and told him about these dogs in the back yard and he was too busy writing a citation over those dogs to grab them. Apparently he wasn't allowed to take the dogs into custody without the consent of the owner. Eventually the owner surrendered the dogs to animal control only to have the adopted back out. She got out of paying any fines by doing this and then bought more dogs. One of the times I made a complaint with Animal Control the idiot working there said "Oh he is just playing with them" in reality these dogs tore the chickens apart.
One time is a mistake, 6 times should be criminal negligence (10 including attacks on neighbors chickens). I too was told I have to take them to court. Maybe I can get a dollar per chicken or something silly like that... not even worth he effort. Luckily my neighbor is sueing and I think she is even lying about what breeds she has which normally I am not in favor of but anything to get it into peoples heads that they need to solve their own dog problem the first time and not wait for 10 different attacks and citations piling up to suddenly realize you can't handle a couple of dog.

Lucky for me my chickens are considered Livestock which means I can take matters into my own hands to protect them as long as they are on my property. My neighbor caught two dogs killing his chickens after they ripped holes in his fence. He was able to destroy one of the dogs. This was the second day in a row that these same dogs had gotten into his pen. They ended up killing over 20 chickens.

 

[MissChick@dee]

It’s kinda weird to “like” someone’s post on this subject.
To me it’s like saying how awful instead of liking it.
It floors me that the #1 predator of chickens could be irradiated with responsibility and then made whole with accountability.

*shaking my head*

 

[Compost King]

Animal Control is who I am furious with, they let that dog into the backyard after instead of capturing it, then sat on his behind while it was killing chickens. Sure the owner was irresponsible and selfish about not fixing the problem the first 5 times. However Animal control where I live is more concerned with adopting out dogs (like they did with these dogs after she surrendered them) than they are about public safety.