- Jan 10, 2009
- 2
- 0
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Hi all, I've been lurking for a bit, this is my first post. I don't know if anyone will be able to help me but I hope so!
Here is the background, my husband and I bought our house a year ago. It's in a somewhat rural area but we do have a fair number of houses nearby. We noticed a few houses around the area that had chickens, we want to start a hobby form when he gets out of the USAF so we though getting a couple chickens and ducks would be a nice first step. We checked with the municipality and it is legal to raise ducks and chickens in your backyard here. We have four ducks and four chickens. Our backyard has a seven foot privacy fence. I clipped the feathers on the wings of the chickens so they can't fly out. The highest they ever jump is on the a/c unit.
Here is the situation, last week we went out for a couple of hours and when we came home one of the chickens was gone. We went all around the neighborhood and didn't see here, not that we really thought we would. We thought that maybe a hawk got her.
Well last night my husband heard voices right behind our fence. There is a 10 foot wide area behind our fence before our neighbors fence starts. We went back there and there were about 5 young kids, 10-12, and a 20-ish year old man. And they had our bird! My husband told them to get out of there, and went back and got her. He then when and talked to the kids, the older guy had run off. From talking to each child individually the guy had gotten in our fence, taken the bird, and was basically tormenting her. Today he had decided he was going to beat her to death with a rock.
My husband went and talked to the kids parents, first off about the bird but also that he was concerned about them hanging out with this guy. I've seen him around the neighborhood, and I have to say he gives off a very weird vibe.
Unfortunately none of the parents were too concerned about the bird or the guy with their kids. One of them got mad at my husband saying that it wasn't illegal for him to kill our chickens, how did he think they got in supermarkets?
We talked to our closest neighbors, and they have all had problems with this group. One of them felt he had to get a guard dog. We have asked them to keep an eye on our backyard and let us know if they see anything, and they have all agreed to do that.
We are getting new locks to replace the broken one, but honestly I don't think that is going to do much.
Sorry for the length of this, I am frustrated and upset. I know to some people (the police for one) they are "just birds" but they are our pets. I don't know what to do. The only options I really see at this point are the locks and hope he doesn't do it again and risk having birds tortured, or find another home for them which I really don't want to do.
Here is the background, my husband and I bought our house a year ago. It's in a somewhat rural area but we do have a fair number of houses nearby. We noticed a few houses around the area that had chickens, we want to start a hobby form when he gets out of the USAF so we though getting a couple chickens and ducks would be a nice first step. We checked with the municipality and it is legal to raise ducks and chickens in your backyard here. We have four ducks and four chickens. Our backyard has a seven foot privacy fence. I clipped the feathers on the wings of the chickens so they can't fly out. The highest they ever jump is on the a/c unit.
Here is the situation, last week we went out for a couple of hours and when we came home one of the chickens was gone. We went all around the neighborhood and didn't see here, not that we really thought we would. We thought that maybe a hawk got her.
Well last night my husband heard voices right behind our fence. There is a 10 foot wide area behind our fence before our neighbors fence starts. We went back there and there were about 5 young kids, 10-12, and a 20-ish year old man. And they had our bird! My husband told them to get out of there, and went back and got her. He then when and talked to the kids, the older guy had run off. From talking to each child individually the guy had gotten in our fence, taken the bird, and was basically tormenting her. Today he had decided he was going to beat her to death with a rock.
My husband went and talked to the kids parents, first off about the bird but also that he was concerned about them hanging out with this guy. I've seen him around the neighborhood, and I have to say he gives off a very weird vibe.
Unfortunately none of the parents were too concerned about the bird or the guy with their kids. One of them got mad at my husband saying that it wasn't illegal for him to kill our chickens, how did he think they got in supermarkets?
We talked to our closest neighbors, and they have all had problems with this group. One of them felt he had to get a guard dog. We have asked them to keep an eye on our backyard and let us know if they see anything, and they have all agreed to do that.
We are getting new locks to replace the broken one, but honestly I don't think that is going to do much.
Sorry for the length of this, I am frustrated and upset. I know to some people (the police for one) they are "just birds" but they are our pets. I don't know what to do. The only options I really see at this point are the locks and hope he doesn't do it again and risk having birds tortured, or find another home for them which I really don't want to do.
