A dog killed my hen - help with how to deal with owner

[mother hen]

Two days ago my neighbor had a friend over and his dog chased one of my guinea hens through the woods between our yards and killed her on my kids playscape. I saw the whole thing and I was utterly devastated. The dog killed the bird and the owner came over and dragged him away. When he came back (the owner not the dog) he was mildly apologetic and offered to pay for the bird. Being that she is...was...my pet I couldn't put a price on her. She rarely lays where I can find her eggs and I keep the guineas around more for the entertainment than anything. Well I hesitated and he said i should maybe think about it and let him know. And I never saw him again. My neighbor is a great guy and his wife is awesome as well but this guy was kind of a jerk. My real issue is that he the incident scared some of my new pullets away and I haven't been able to find them. So I'm missing at least 4 of my soon-to-be egg layers on top of the dead guinea. I am not sure if I should seek compensation or just let it go. I've lost my fair share of birds, both guineas and chickens, but this really shook me. I'm used to a wild animal who kills for food, not a domestic animal who kills for sport.
As a sidebar comment, there are at least 6 dogs in our immediate area who come to our yard regularly and never harm our chickens. I think that it was easy for this dog to kill the hen because she is used to dogs running through the yard, not that it changes anything.

Any thoughts on how I should handle it?

Thanks you!!

 

[4 the Birds]

Sorry for your loss! Unfortunately the value of a chicken whether it is a pet or not is not very high. You could ask to be compensated for the killed chicken and any ones that you cannot find which will likely not be much. It is just a natural instinct for dogs to chase after chickens, rabbits, and other game whether to play with or kill them. The dog owner sounds friendly and I would chock this one up as a learning experience. A perimeter fence for your yard or at least the chicken range area is essential in my opinion. This will provide a barrier for most predators and 99% of neighbor, visiting, or stray dogs.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Agreed, the most the law will allow you is replacement cost for the hen (perhaps $15) and maybe a small allowance for the loss of her future eggs--although, since you weren't using her eggs, you may not be able to claim this. If your other birds don't come back, you can ask for $15 for each of them as well. Of course, the dog owner may say that there is no proof that your other birds didn't come back because of the dog attack and my not want to pay the extra.

Unless you take the owner to court, and probably not then, either--you will not be able to claim pain and suffering for the bird.

Dogs are among the worst predators we have here. We've lost many, many hens to dogs, both feral and owned. When you free-range your birds, you are accepting a certain amount of loss from predators, and dogs are predators the same as a fox, coyote, or hawk. If you have multiple dogs coming to your yard, I would say that you have been very, very lucky to not lose a bird before now.

I am sorry for your loss. If your birds mean this much to you, you may want to invest in a fence.

 

[mother hen]

Thank you both. My neighbor came over a couple days ago to offer to pay for the birds that went missing but I told him no. I value our relationship and even though I love my birds, I didn't feel right about it.