So terribly sad. Such trauma, terror, pain. I often find myself imaging what it would be like to be in our bird's 'shoes.' Hard to imagine a worse way to go.
I think acting on behalf of our birds, who depend on us, trumps niceties toward clearly inconsiderate, selfish, and thoughtless people. I tried niceties toward a neighbor for 2 years - their dogs kept trying to attack my birds on my property - and their people never learned - indeed, never cared - they were full of attitude and clearly placed NO value on my birds or on being neighborly - my birds didn't get hurt or I would have acted wayyyyy sooner - finally, I had them ticketed for dogs at large and I told them it would be worse than that if it happened again. Now they have put up a fence - we'll see how that goes. Lots more stories I could tell about other 'neighbors' who I finally had to get tough with - one whose dog gave me multiple fractures and dislocated my hen's foot - unbelievably, time and again since then he continued to let the dog loose - he now has 4 tickets. Had I had losses these stories would be a lot longer because I now know we must exact financial ramifications for some people to finally understand that their behavior is not acceptable. Only because I stand right over my birds if and when I give them a few minutes of freedom is the situation not worse - buit I resent having to do that because of other people behaving so irresponsibly (dogs are my only daytime pred worry and the birds are locked up tight at night). Now my birds hardly ever get any freedom from their coop and run; despite the huge property tax bill I pay for my humble piece of property my pets can't use it. I am a nice, quiet and considerate neighbor who would never EVER allow a pet of mine to hurt someone's elses pets or livestock, - and find it very sad how rare this appears to be anymore.
Please please take maximum action against these folks. There are an utterly unconscionable number of dog attacks daily and sadly, it seems only by holding people like that maximally accountable financially and otherwise will will effect a paradigm shift that helps prevent further suffering. I've been here for years and it's clear to me that that paradigm shift has not yet occurred.
There are lots of threads here on BYC about dog attacks that will give you great information about how you can proceed (you can use the search tab up above [search topic and can also search authors like horsejody] plus I'm sure folks will continue to provide thoughts here in this thread).
JJ
