I am so very sorry for your loss, what a hideous, hideous situation. This may sound horrible, but it actually made me feel slightly better about my recent very stressful and sad situation. I dont say that to make you feel bad, just to let you know that there are people out here who are GOOD people, who could never even think of the irresponsible, immoral acts that some people do everyday. I too live in Northern California in the moutains (although not as high as you). Forgive me, because this is a bit of a long saga, but I have been wanting to write to BYC about this, and you have given me the opportunity to share my pain with you. Last April 13, 2009, I came home to find SEVEN of my 13 chickens massacred all over my yard.Heads and bodies strewn across my kids play area (I too have two young toddlers). My chickens were secured in a large dog kennel that was clearly jumped on until the gate gave way. Our babies were 6 months old and hand raised by my 2 and 4 year old. They were truly pets. We all grieved for MONTHS and had nightmares for weeks. We buried them with a beautiful cross right next to our house. We had NO idea whose dogs could've done this. We live on a long windy mountain road, with very little knowledge of our neighbors. Although many people who live in the mountains think it is ok to let their dogs run free, we had never seen any loose dogs in our area. I contacted animal control, but was told there was nothing they could do because I didn't see who did it.
Several months later, my husband heard a disturbance and looked out to see a large rhodesian ridgeback jumping on the chicken cage. He ran out to stop it, but the dog ran away, however not before my husband saw a man and woman walking away off of our property with two more dogs, and the dog he saw chasing after them. Afterwards, we also found out that this dog (or dogs) had entered an open door in our garage and peed on our carpet in the childrens playroom. Once again, we had NO IDEA who these people were, we had never seen them before. So once again, I reported it, but was again told nothing could be done because we didnt know who the offenders were.
Finally, on February 13, 2010 (10 months after the first episode) I walked outside to find two strangers, a man and a woman standing right next to my chicken house (which is 20 feet from my front window) there were three very large rhodesian ridgebacks running frantically around, feathers everywhere and these two people were unable to contain or control their dogs. I screamed and yelled "who are you, what are yoiu doing here, catch the darn dogs, etc" It literally took them at least 7 minutes while I was out there for these people to contain their dogs. These people had NO LEASHES (not even in their pockets), they had to walk RIGHT in front of my front door to get there, they fully admitted"we have been walking our dogs here for 5 years"....despite the fact that we built our house and moved in 3 years ago. THey admitted to walking REPEATEDLY thru our property for the last 5 years, with NO PERMISSION, never even bothering to introduce themselves (despite being "neighbors"). In this episode (the THIRD), I finally caught them, but not before their darn dogs killed 3 more of our babies. Making our loss a total of 10 of our original 13 chickens KILLED BY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE. My three and five year olds buried TEN of their pets in the last TEN months.
I contacted the police, as well as animal control, and got this...."THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO"
Come to find out, "No Trepssing laws" are virutally unenforceable (you must have signs EVERY 1/4 mile the entire perimeter of your property AND you have to have caught the people before and WARNED them in order to prosecute them) We have 20 acres of redwood forest (impossible to fence or have signs as frequently as needed)
And because we have NEVER CAUGHT these people on our property, it doesnt matter that they fully admitted to REPEATEDLY USING OUR PROPERTY FOR THE LAST 5 Years, and that we did see them, but we didnt KNOW them, so couldnt WARN them.
So, we go thru agony AGAIN, we actually CATCH the offenders in the act and "THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO"
These people are BREEDERS and TRAINERS of RHodesian RIdgebacks, so FULLY aware of what they are capable of, not to mention these people REPEATEDLY walked past our chickens, their dogs have killed our chickens before, and yet they kept coming back. Their "so-called" show dogs PEED in our house and were virtually unable to be caught (so much for their fabulous training..)
Basically, there is NO EXCUSE for the deaths of our pets, nor the deaths of yours. People like this are completely IMMORAL, IRRESPONSIBLE and it is so very sick that these people will face NO CONSEQUENCES for their actions. We and our children will have the nightmares and suffer the grief, and they will just go along through life without a thought or care for anyone or anything else. I am so very sorry for your loss, I REALLY can relate, it is a horrible situation, made worse by no justice. What terrible things our children learn about life and the cruelty of so many people out there.
I hope that you and your children will be able to heal, and I hope you had taken pictures of your babies, that is all we have left of our sweet and irreplaceable Lucky, Sunshine, Whisper, Mamasan, Black Beauty, Grey, Ginger, Mary Poppins, Amelia and Isabella. Rest in peace
Take care of yourself, and I am so sorry that man is your neighbor.
