A few chickens, a puppy & an animal lover's dilemma

[New2TheCoop]

Well it finally happened... I woke up and my wife says "umm baby, all the roosters are in the yard." so we leashed up the dogs. When we got outside their was a small beagle puppy with a reflective hunters orange collar standing by some blood and a pile of feathers. He got a rooster. In anger I threw a rake at him and he ran off into the woods. This brings me to my question... What should I do? I am an animal lover, but I do own a few guns & would surely shoot him if I caught him in the act again. Should I try and catch him & turn him over to animal welfare? We have a no kill shelter here. Do you all know of any way to detur a dog? It's quite the dilemma & it's not how I wanted to start off my July 4th!

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

deterring a dog - livestock wire, buried wire in the ground so they can't dig, and electric wire. - they aren't getting to the chickens and get a nice zap. Honestly a dog is the worst predator to have besides a smart raccoon.

as for your current doggy - see if you can't catch him. - check his tags his owner's name is sure to be on the hunting collar (atleast all my neighbors' are) talk to the owner. OR just call animal welfare and hand him over. Let the owner know if you catch any dog back after your poultry you will not hesitate to shoot them next time.


sorry for your loss

 

[bryan99705]

A good rooster is the first one to a fight to protect his girls, no matter how outgunned he is.

Probably want to first find out how he got to the birds. If you have a good fence and he went under, don't bother digging in a skirt, just attach about 18 to 24 inch wide wire to the bottom of you fence and let it lay flat and outward from the fence row. (hog rings work great for this) This is easier than it digging in, does not loosen the ground for them, is neater, and will stop dogs, fox, etc before they can really even try to dig.

An electric fence perimeter will stop most any predator from a opposum to a griz from crossing in as long as it's set up right and hot (5 - 6 joules)

 

[Oregon Blues]

He had a collar on. If you had been calm, you probably could have walked right up to him, taken him into custody and shipped him off to the pound.

I always hope that the dog owner will learn to keep the dog home after he pays fines a couple of times.

Electric fence works to keep strays away from your chickens. That pup won't be the only stray to come along and want a chicken dinner.

 

[Kyle241]

Unfortunately chickens are the favourite food for everything and sometimes just a game to other animals (dogs especially). I would follow the recommendations others have put forth, find out how he got in and address it. My belief is that if you have chickens, it means making sure they are as safe as can be. There are so many different predators that the only way to keep them safe is to enclose the entire run with suggestions people have put on the forums.

Sorry about your rooster.

 

[islandchix]

A wild dog killed our roo a couple weeks ago. It ripped out both wired windows in the coop and I'm sure our roo was defending his girls as thats how it pulled him out. Luckily we were able to get outside quickly and found him on the ground in one piece. Now the windows are boarded up

I guess we shouldn't have put in windows.

GL, and I agree with pp on trying to turn him in. And sorry about your roo