Had to shoot a dog - WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT!

[lclough1998]

I think that most chicken owners who came upon their chickens being slaughtered would fight to save their property, be it a gun pitchfork, whatever. It takes alot of time and money to raise chickens, not to mention they are your pets, um twice! Please dont offer to pay his vet bill, not until he offers to pay for all of his dogs destruction. That would be like admitting guilt and tht is not your position. Of course, you wish it had worked out differently but since he disregarded your requests to pen his dog and you were kind enough to not ask for restitution the first time the dog got your chickens, not sure why he should be surprised with the end result. Don't back down until he does. I am sorry this is coming between brothers, tho, it was his choice, not yours. What would he have done if your chickens went in his yard and attacked his dog? I doubt he would have just stood there and let his dog get killed. Its a Knee jerk reaction to guard your property.

 

[Kalenth]

Comments are good! I'm glad to see I'm not crazy. Or at least there are a lot of crazies out there....

Through all this I stand by the fact that family does not come first for me. Standing by my word and principles is first. I will always stand by what I think is right. Even in situations like this, where I know that the ultimate outcome of me doing the right thing is even more BS for me to deal with, I will not back down, be walked on, or bend my principles so I can reclaim a relationship with a brother who obviously doesn't respect me... it's not worth it. I have too much life to spend it trying to please and stay in the good graces of negative family and friends.

Now on to fight the HOA to get my chickens back... and then to build a super-coop to keep the yeti's at bay.

 

[real_redhead]

So sorry you have had to go thru this. I suffered a loss from a neighbors dog and I know how it can eat you up, you do everything to try and protect your flock and something like this happens. It must be even harder when it is your own brother who doesn't seem to care. I posted on BYC how I felt after my incident and some people were very understanding and others bashed me for saying what I thought. I am so sorry you are going thru this!! Good luck! My thoughts are with you!

 

[sumi]

Comments are good! I'm glad to see I'm not crazy. Or at least there are a lot of crazies out there....

Through all this I stand by the fact that family does not come first for me. Standing by my word and principles is first. I will always stand by what I think is right. Even in situations like this, where I know that the ultimate outcome of me doing the right thing is even more BS for me to deal with, I will not back down, be walked on, or bend my principles so I can reclaim a relationship with a brother who obviously doesn't respect me... it's not worth it. I have too much life to spend it trying to please and stay in the good graces of negative family and friends.

Now on to fight the HOA to get my chickens back... and then to build a super-coop to keep the yeti's at bay.

Hope you get this story sorted out in your favour.

You know that old saying about blood being thicker than water? Well sometimes, just sometimes, water is thicker than blood. Sometimes some things are more important than family.

 

[theoldchick]

All I can say is that if keeping a "good" relationship with family requires me to allow their dog to slaughter my chickens, then I'll forgo the family and keep the chickens.

Seems obvious that the OP's brother doesn't care about a good relationship, plainly choosing the dog over his brother and his brother's enjoyment of his property and his flock. A relationship, by definition, is not one-sided.

Love it!

 

[creekside2012]

you were right to shoot the dog, your only mistake was not killing it and burying it.

After much thought and consideration to this whole thing and my original reply, I have to say I 100% agree with this. I would do it with anyone or anything messing with my family or my house and therefore any of my livestock...as they are my livlihood and messing with them is like cleaning out my bank account or cutting off my food supply.

 

[Adoravachick]

i will shoot my dog if it starts killing my chickens,not to mention someone elses.
never live next to family.

Amen! Living next to family can get very complicated.

 

[Adoravachick]

Your brother had fair warning about his dog. Our family recently lost 12 of our birds to a predator, 6 of them were my 4 year old daughter's chickens that she raised from chicks. We are not sure what it was, but whatever it was completely ripped my hutch apart. My little girl was devastated that her chickens "ran away". After my husband found our little darlings dead, I was so angry and so ready to kill whatever got my daughter's pets. Dog or not. Anyone who has raised and cared for their chickens as pets, knows how much time it taked to make them that way

I'm sorry that your brother put you in that position.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm sorry but I can't understand people who say a bird dog that kills birds(chickens) is just following it's nature!! Horse hockey!! I don't know of any instance where a bird dog is meant to attack, maul and eat birds. Bird dogs either point, flush or retrieve birds. No hunter would want his game being eaten or mauled. Bird dog retrievers are supposed to have a soft mouth and not damage the bird at all. Maybe nowadays a hunter is supposed to rush and retrieve any game shot before his dogs gobbles it up. Something stinks and it isn't dog poo poo.

 

[bobbi-j]

I'm sorry but I can't understand people who say a bird dog that kills birds(chickens) is just following it's nature!! Horse hockey!! I don't know of any instance where a bird dog is meant to attack, maul and eat birds. Bird dogs either point, flush or retrieve birds. No hunter would want his game being eaten or mauled. Bird dog retrievers are supposed to have a soft mouth and not damage the bird at all. Maybe nowadays a hunter is supposed to rush and retrieve any game shot before his dogs gobbles it up. Something stinks and it isn't dog poo poo.

Because they don't understand the purpose of the dog. It's pretty much in any untrained dog's nature to catch and play with the flapping squawking things that they have access to. It's what dogs do. If it runs, they chase it. If they can catch it, all the better! What? It makes noise and flaps?? Hooray! Oh, wait - it stopped moving. Oh, look! Another one! No one said this was a bad thing, so it must be OK to play with it.