DH stopped and talked to him on Tuesday. Guy was very apologetic and said he would pay for our losses. He and DH exchanged phone numbers and we will be calling him, probably today, to give him a total, and if he wants it itemized, I can do that. (Not that it matters or is any kind of an excuse, but they "just moved to the area" and they don't have a fence or anything up yet and allegedly they door-dashed on his wife.) Animal Control also called Wednesday to let me know that the owner was retrieving his dog, and in addition to paying for the pound fees and vet care for the porcupine she got into, that the owner would receive a ticket for his dogs getting into the birds while loose. AC ALSO gave me the man's name, phone number, and address so we could contact him. SO, long story short, we will be getting money from the owner and he has a very expensive dog.AFAIK, the other dog is still at large, or at least was as of yesterday. THAT dog isn't the one that was IN THE COOP though....was outside the fence and was the first one to take off when DH ran out the door.
They live almost a mile and a half away from us, so the dogs went quite a long way (IMO) in order to get here......they probably just stumbled across the birds and did what dogs do. It was very upsetting, but part of owning poultry is having predator losses. I don't think I have any lasting hard feelings toward him, after all, I used to have a dog that was an escape artist who killed quite a few of our chickens.....and I know how frustrating it can be to think that you've found a way to contain the dog only have it get out within minutes. If it becomes a serial problem.......well......my feelings will probably change.
So glad things seem to be going smoothly with getting this resolved. We have never had any dogs get into our run and hurt our chickens, but something worse - bored teenage boys. In the end a relative came to visit me with information that led to the police finding out who had taken our birds, beheading one of them and throwing others out of the windows of their car while driving, but it took months to get resolved before several of them were charged with animal cruelty, among other things. Like you said, hopefully this is a one time event.DH stopped and talked to him on Tuesday. Guy was very apologetic and said he would pay for our losses. He and DH exchanged phone numbers and we will be calling him, probably today, to give him a total, and if he wants it itemized, I can do that. (Not that it matters or is any kind of an excuse, but they "just moved to the area" and they don't have a fence or anything up yet and allegedly they door-dashed on his wife.) Animal Control also called Wednesday to let me know that the owner was retrieving his dog, and in addition to paying for the pound fees and vet care for the porcupine she got into, that the owner would receive a ticket for his dogs getting into the birds while loose. AC ALSO gave me the man's name, phone number, and address so we could contact him. SO, long story short, we will be getting money from the owner and he has a very expensive dog.AFAIK, the other dog is still at large, or at least was as of yesterday. THAT dog isn't the one that was IN THE COOP though....was outside the fence and was the first one to take off when DH ran out the door.
They live almost a mile and a half away from us, so the dogs went quite a long way (IMO) in order to get here......they probably just stumbled across the birds and did what dogs do. It was very upsetting, but part of owning poultry is having predator losses. I don't think I have any lasting hard feelings toward him, after all, I used to have a dog that was an escape artist who killed quite a few of our chickens.....and I know how frustrating it can be to think that you've found a way to contain the dog only have it get out within minutes. If it becomes a serial problem.......well......my feelings will probably change.
The first article seemed quite silly in my opinion. I worked for the Humane Society of West Michigan for over 3 years and saw chickens brought in once that whole time. Maybe in Michigan, if we don't want to keep our chickens anymore, we do the sensible thing and eat them?
