accused of killing neighbor's chickens

[chickengeorgeto]

There is a colony of foxes up the street from their place - a mother and cubs, about 5 cubs. I saw them this evening.

Take a video camera and tape the fox den location. Fox parents will often kill dozens of chickens and eat none of them. However they will make kills and drop them at the den for their kits, and even leave addled prey at the den location so that the fox babies can get some experience killing injured prey.

Mother Nature is a far cry from a Walt Disney nature flick.

 

[Percheron chick]

I can guarantee you that no single dog attacked the horse. A pack of dogs or mountain lion slim chance, another horse or human more likely. A horse will barely notice a dog or coyote cutting through the pasture because they are not a threat. Doesn't sound like they know horses or spend anytime observing them.

The chicken massacre sounds more like 2 or more dogs. What ever it was will return. Keep your dog locked up so he doesn't get caught up in the mess.

 

[DrDean]

He is a mutt. He was a rescue puppy. He is very submissive. If our chickens want his food, he will quit eating and let them have it. When we got a very young rescue kitten, he basically mothered it - licked her until she starting cleaning herself and let her sleep on him. He just doesn't seem like the killer type. He doesn't attack our cats, chickens or rabbits.

 

[SpringPeeper]

I can guarantee you that no single dog attacked the horse. A pack of dogs or mountain lion slim chance, another horse or human more likely. A horse will barely notice a dog or coyote cutting through the pasture because they are not a threat. Doesn't sound like they know horses or spend anytime observing them.

The chicken massacre sounds more like 2 or more dogs. What ever it was will return. Keep your dog locked up so he doesn't get caught up in the mess.

It definitely isn't impossible for a single dog to injure a horse. I have a friend who had a pair of Clydesdales panic rather than defend themselves, and sustain serious injuries (mainly to their legs) from a single Rottweiler, until his spunky little Morgan/Wesh pony mix came to the rescue. The pony was able to push it back from the big horses enough for the owner to take a safe shot at it. A neighbor had her own Jack Russel damage the muzzle of her quarter horse, which was further injured panicking and crashing into the fence at a dead run. That incident happened and was over very quickly, but the horse never fought back against that dog either. A horse is generally quite capable of handling a dog, but it isn't always their first instinct.

I think the most thing for the OP to do is make sure his dog is not running loose again. It is the best way to protect himself and his dog. Even if you would stake your life on your dog having zero prey drive, the neighbor and their animals don't know that and shouldn't be stressed out by your animals visiting. Fortunately, it would be awfully hard for them to prove in court it was your dog, but it does help their case if they can prove it repeatedly was coming onto their property. Hopefully your dog is innocent and the real culprit is found out.

 

[centrarchid]

My dogs, some, have demonstrated a capacity to kill neighbor's stock then return to defend ours of same species. Your dog could kill even a large turkey or goose in short order even though generally timid. One of my wimpiest dogs had no trouble engaging even large healthy boar coons and winning. That being said, some wild animals, especially the foxes, will surplus kill (would appear to be for fun until carcasses policed up by predator).

Neighbor nearby targeted recently by my dogs was paid for losses. I also pointed out their stock left their property and when that was contested was able to walk them around house to point out flock walking down road in real time. Legally I was responsible only for losses where my dog came onto their land and most were not on their land. Those on their land I was legally responsible for. As conversation with that party continued it became apparent they had been loosing a lot more birds one at a time for an extended period of time (wildlife caused). I recommended they adopt a more sound fencing option to the deer netting in use and suggested they use electrified poultry netting or hotwire; I use both in concert with my dogs that know how to navigate it keeping losses of free-range birds very low. At some point like with other poultry keepers in the area, a predator they do not currently know (likely to be a dog) is going to depopulate their flock. The bone-headed attitude with insistence that only the dog owner is responsible increases odds such poultry keepers either drop out or spend a lot more on replacement birds until improvements by poultry keeper are made. Getting neighbor to adopt more effective and costly protections is delicate, especially in the aftermath of an attack, very especially if they attribute losses to your dog. You will need a thick skin when dealing with such and go to great efforts not to be offensive. This something I have a fair amount of experience in as not writing hypothetically or as what should be done.

That being said, OP, you need to keep dog on your property when there is even a suspicion your dog is involved.

 

[Redneek]

I find it hard to believe they will spend a lot of money to get a DNA sample and they would have to get a sample of your dogs DNA, which you don't have to give them except by court order. Getting a court order could cost them over $10000. I think they just said this because they where mad.
On the other side, I know how mad I get when I lose chickens, but it was mostly my own fault for not securing their chicken coop.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

I find it hard to believe they will spend a lot of money to get a DNA sample and they would have to get a sample of your dogs DNA, which you don't have to give them except by court order. Getting a court order could cost them over $10000. I think they just said this because they where mad.
On the other side, I know how mad I get when I lose chickens, but it was mostly my own fault for not securing their chicken coop.

That is one part of the whole equation that hasn't been addressed. If these people allowed their chickens to free-range then they need to accept the fact that they WILL lose chickens from time to time. Either by dogs, hawks, people (personal experience with this one) or other predators. It is a calculated risk that you take when you don't pen your chickens up. If you have rare and expensive chickens (the only way that going to court would be financially worth it) then that should go into the decision on whether or not you can afford the risk of free-ranging. So the way I see it, regardless of whether or not the OP's dog was the culprit, the owners of the dead chickens should take half of the responsibility of what happened to them.

 

[Folly's place]

I too live in a very rural area, and I've spent $$$ to properly fence my dogs in, so they don't have a chance to visit neighbors and cause any trouble. It's always possible for pets and livestock to get out and visit neighbors, but it's my job to try very hard to keep my animals at home. Mary

 

[DrDean]

I'm more convinced now that my dogs were not out at all that day. Additionally, there was a pile of dead animals this morning at the fox den, with several of the pups there with it. The mama fox is clearly killing animals and bringing them to the den. She is not particularly scarred of people either. I've sat in my vehicle around 20 feet from her without her fleeing. The pups have even less fear of people.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

I'm more convinced now that my dogs were not out at all that day. Additionally, there was a pile of dead animals this morning at the fox den, with several of the pups there with it. The mama fox is clearly killing animals and bringing them to the den. She is not particularly scarred of people either. I've sat in my vehicle around 20 feet from her without her fleeing. The pups have even less fear of people.

Tape it and show it to the neighbors to show them that they have other things that they need to worry about other than your dog.