Help, my neighbor is family, and their dog keeps attacking my chickens

[rancher hicks]

Excuse me?! Three times?! I don't think so. What 's the matter w/ you? Family or not the second time would be the last if it was me. Family like that I dont' need and neither do you, call the police. Sorry but posts like this just make me mad. Chickens count on us to keep them safe. If we can't do that we don't deserve to have them.

 

[littledel]

Well, right now they seem to be mad at me for being upset over "silly chickens", but I told them I have been as patient as I know how and that I had better never see that dog at my place again. It is penned up for now, but I am sure when this dies down a little, they will let it out again. I think if it comes back, I will shoot it and bury it where it falls and then just keep it to myself.

 

[littledel]

Police won't do anything. Neither will animal control. We live out of town, so we are pretty much on our own on this. I think $50 per chicken sounds about right when you think of the time and feed you put into one to raise it to laying age. I also have turkeys and am worried about them. But again, if it comes back and I get a shot at it, it is dead.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like a good plan to me. If the dog keeps getting out, every day there's a possibility they may not see it come home, whether it goes to your house or elsewhere. If folks can't put up some type of fence for their dog, they shouldn't be allowed to have one. And I do believe that--I wish it was the law that you had to securely fence your dogs, not just chain them out somewhere or let them roam.


We're just so frustrated for you! Makes me nuts the way some people act.

 

[flakey chick]

You have a few options. It depends on how you feel about shooting/killing the dog. For non-lethal means you can try HALT pepper spray, paintball gun or shotgun loaded with rock salt (or beanbag gun, etc.) There is also the SSS method where you shoot the dog and don't tell anyone you did it. (Shoot, shovel, shutup)

We had a similar (but not family) problem here. The neighbor would promise to keep his dogs contained, but that only lasted a few day. We figured it would take a car accident or shooting for the neighbor to care about keeping his other dogs penned up. One day we saw a notice posted by our mailboxes. It said that someone murdered his dog with ANTIFREEZE! If your family is truly crazy about their dog, they must keep it contained for it's own sake. Surely you are not the only neighbor being annoyed by this dog. I wouldn't begrudge anyone shooting a threatening dog, but death by anti-freeze inexcusably cruel. There are some real sickos out there.

 

[littledel]

They have a fence, and a chain too. They just choose to let it run free because we live in the country.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Why not put up a fence for the chickens? There's a one way street to trouble, why not make an effort to prevent the dog from getting to the chickens? I DO agree, dogs need to be contained. As are mine. But chickens need confinement too, unless you live in Utopia.

Quote:
This comes down to the real situation! BOTH dogs and chickens need to be separated and or/confined! There is no one RIGHT way to solve this issue, unless dog and chicken owners agree that the animals need to be kept separate.

 

[canada-goose]

Quote:
Haven't they ever heard that free roaming dogs are unsafe in the country? Guns tend to be permitted.

 

[speckledhen]

Dogs do dig under fences as well as climb over them. My property is perimeter fenced (two of the five acres is), but a fox, dog or coyote dug up one of my dead birds recently, very close to the house. Fence didn't do much in that case. I do think folks have the right to free range their birds on their own property, though. If the birds were on the OP's property and the dog came onto that property to kill the birds, then the dog's owner is at fault. No if's, and's or but's.

 

[flakey chick]

Pens don't keep chickens safe from wandering dogs. They have been known to kill themselves trying to flee.