Chicken owner killed lab trying to attack him and his flock

[EggSighted4Life]

My brother has been bitten in his face by a black lab. And my black lab mix would chase and tear up every barn yard animal she could get her teeth on. She doesn't because we've trained... but any other animal better beware when entering our property.

By the way.... Golden Retrievers (lab) bites more people than pit bulls, but because it isn't usually fatal and not the media darlings the pitties are, it just doesn't get reported as much. All dogs are individuals, just like our chickens and ourselves!

And my vet said her number one biters all the small guys.

Point is being a lab doesn't in anyway make the dog innocent!

 

[centrarchid]

It shakes you up when do shoot. For me it is not something that walk away from feeling only "the dog deserved it". Feel conflicted.

 

[aart]

It shakes you up when do shoot. For me it is not something that walk away from feeling only "the dog deserved it". Feel conflicted.

No kidding!!
I feel that way shooting coon, woodchuck, rabbit.....
....can't imagine how I'd feel shooting a dog....really bad I'm sure.
Approaching/facing the owner would be terrifying.

 

[centrarchid]

Facing owner each time was easier for me. Owner was the bad guy.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Oh ya, it shakes me up...

Nothing that was going on prior to the incident is going to continue that day. My head is still reeling and just very somber.

And I love dogs!!!!!!!

So I can definitely feel the conflict within...

 

[Howard E]

For those who have never heard of the case, you probably have heard that a "dog is a man's best friend"? We have Old Drum to thank for that:

https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/education/olddrum/StoryofBurdenvHornsby

Any of this sound familiar? It reminds me so much of this incident its scary. So I submit this as my argument that SSS is, in general, a bad idea. As you can see, shooting dogs and dealing with the consequences of doing it is an age old problem.

In conclusion, my advice is to find a way to avoid shooting your neighbor's dogs if at all possible.

 

[centrarchid]

Shooting dog is what you do after last resort is exhausted. In my situation, I was not yet smart enough to use electric fencing of any sort for protecting chickens. I also was not used to living in area with such a high dog density. Pens and birds attacked were in front yard that is not fenced even now. I got smart and moved pens and core of bird area away from house where fencing was more practical. I grew up around hotwire but do not want kids out messing with it as soon as they walk out the door. They still get into it but frequency much lower. Zaps not lethal but they do make for very mad kids that know daddy caused it.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm of two minds about this story, especially after reading that article. I've been in that situation where people let their dogs run at will and the dog just keeps coming back to your property, destroying things and killing animals. I've been there. I've returned dogs again and again, even bought them a tie out and collar, called the police~who told me they don't handle such things and that I had every right to kill the animal if I so wished. Who wants to have to do that if you can avoid it and you know the owners well?

I'm wondering if this man hasn't had the same situation time and again from this same dog and just grew frustrated enough to end it once and for all? We all hear stories about this time and again on BYC where people call the police, take the dogs to the pound, return it to the owner and even take them to court for damages....yet, the dogs still return, still run free, still come back to your land and to your livestock. It seems to happen more than stories where dogs are found, returned to the owners and you never see the dog again.

Or, he could know these people and have dealt with them in the past and knew how hostile they could get if told to keep their dogs at home. Been there too.

I mean, c'mon...the dog's name is Savage but he's a wonderful, sweet and dear animal? Wouldn't harm a flea? Makes one wonder, doesn't it?

But, on the other hand, if the dog really was just off the property for the first time, poking around the coop but not actively trying to find a way in or already killing chickens, one wonders if the man acted too hastily and could have tried to tie up the dog and try to contact neighbors to come and get him. If this is truly such a small community, most people know other people's dogs, so it shouldn't be too hard to find out where he belongs. Did the dog really bark and growl? Who knows but the man.

I've had THAT situation happen too....new dog, nice, sweet and huge Great Pyr, not used to the containment system yet, went off property for the first and last time....5 min. after exiting the land, we heard a shot. We asked around but we know he was killed with that shot and there wasn't even any livestock involved, as we are the only ones around with any. We did nothing. It was a hard pill to swallow but we did nothing. We didn't start a petition, call the police, nothing...you know why? A dog off our land is trespassing on someone else. Period. It's their right to police their land as they see fit, as it is my right to do so on my land. At least....out here in the hollers of WV it still is.

Tough situation all around but it would be nice to have more details.

 

[Zoomie]

Interesting side note: my vet told me that say, 50 years ago, this would never have happened because everyone who saw a stray dog dutifully shot it as part of being in the community. Everyone had livestock; no one wanted their livestock killed by a stray dog. Therefore, stray dogs were shot on sight. I suppose cities would have been different but out in the country that was how things were done. If the dog was out running loose and someone shot it, well, the owner realized that it was their own fault.

The other issue is that for some reason, people think if you take an unwanted dog or cat out to the "country" and dump it near a farm, it will have a wonderful life. In fact what happens is the dog or cat's life is usually short and very miserable. If it doesn't get hit by a car, or attacked by other dogs, or coyotes, it ends up starving and sometimes in desperation will attack or kill livestock whereupon it gets shot.

I fully realize that no one on this forum would do such a thing, but for any lurkers or any non-regulars: PLEASE. Do NOT dump your unwanted animal. Take it to the shelter, or take it to the vet and have it humanely euthanized. And if your response to that is to say, "Oh no! That would make me feel terrible to do that!" how do you think the rest of us feel?

 

[Beekissed]

Interesting side note: my vet told me that say, 50 years ago, this would never have happened because everyone who saw a stray dog dutifully shot it as part of being in the community. Everyone had livestock; no one wanted their livestock killed by a stray dog. Therefore, stray dogs were shot on sight. I suppose cities would have been different but out in the country that was how things were done. If the dog was out running loose and someone shot it, well, the owner realized that it was their own fault.

That is correct. It was common practice to shoot both stray dogs AND cats and any dogs found running deer or livestock on your land, be they have a collar or not. That is still in practice in many rural communities today....like my own. My neighbor checks with me about what cats I currently have and leaves them be...all others are usually shot. He doesn't have any livestock to protect, it's just how it's done here. No one likes the toms spraying their porches with scent or females having kits under their houses and such.

It's quite rare for any dog that is dropped off out here to last more than a week or two without being shot or hit on the road...if they are a hound breed, they last longer. Most country folk know that it's real easy to lose a hound while out hunting with him, so they leave those pretty much alone or make more efforts to restore them to the owner.

Needless to say, those are also the communities where there is no feral cat problem and never has been, even where barn cats were allowed to breed as they wished. The intact males would kill all male kittens, even consume them or parts of them. Intact males also had a distinct territory and would protect it and any females they had there to the death, so the male population was much thinned down just by natural instinct of the intact cats. No one was feeding cats food on a regular basis either, so females weren't having litter after litter either...usually one litter a year, if that, much like wild animals do. Those kittens would then go on to be hunters that were thinned down even further by the wildlife in their hunting territory.

In short, no problems out in the country with over population of cats or dogs.