Our neighbor had two black Labradors that constantly went onto our property and harassed the chickens by running them to death back and forth through the fence. Since at first I was able to scare them away easily and they hadn't caused any real damage other than a few very bothered hens, I was forgiving in the beginning. My property is fenced but apparently there is a hole on the neighbor's side of the fence. I got my tools out and repaired it but I came out a week later and it was bigger than it had been before. Once the unwelcome visits became frequent, and my chickens actually ended up with feathers missing and scratches from where the dogs had clawed at my coop's fencing - which is now dented, I called the owner of the dogs, who responded with "It's not my responsibility if your fencing is shabby." Enraged at this statement, considering that fencing or not, it's his responsibility to keep his dogs under wraps, I told him that I would call animal control if it happened again. He brushed it off and hung up, and low and behold his dogs showed up yet again the next day, so I kept my promise and called the local animal control. They did absolutely nothing and never got back to me, so I settled for a few months with just watching my coop and property closely. Regrettably, I let down my guard and lost an Australorp hen to the two dogs, who broke a hole in my coop and only managed to get one hen when they couldn't fit into the main part of the coop.
At this point I was fed up, exhausted and in tears so I busted out my .22 and fired a few warning shots. They didn't even move an inch, so I fired a few rounds off and managed to kill one of them. The other got away, but I haven't had any more trouble from the owner so far.
some dog owners...
Edit: I called the owner afterward and told him that I'd killed the dog, and that he could come and retrieve the body if he wanted; but he never showed up so we left it in a blanket on his doorstep.
At this point I was fed up, exhausted and in tears so I busted out my .22 and fired a few warning shots. They didn't even move an inch, so I fired a few rounds off and managed to kill one of them. The other got away, but I haven't had any more trouble from the owner so far.
Edit: I called the owner afterward and told him that I'd killed the dog, and that he could come and retrieve the body if he wanted; but he never showed up so we left it in a blanket on his doorstep.
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