Neighbors dog attacked my chickens again

[chickenreferee]

I know there's a 'nice and proper' way to deal with this type of issue, but quite frankly, I like the SSS method. I'm sorry about your birds. Seems quite clear the dog owner desires to bear no responsibility for keeping her animals under control and that unfortunately leaves the burden of security on you. The dogs will be back, I hope you are able to weather the storm again without another loss.

IMO, all the legal crap in the world doesn't matter a hill of beans to people who are already apathetic and insensitive to their neighbors. But I know you have to do what you have to do to keep the peace.

 

[Magic Birdie]

OOOHHHHH I HATE MY NEIGHBORS TOO!!!

My advice is horrible, but I sometimes want to go over and hit them.

But I don't. Sadness.

 

[blitz1027]

I am sorry to hear someone's pets killed yours. Contact your local sheriff's office and inquire about your rights and how "pet on livestock violence" has been addressed in the past. Although it is not your fault, it is your best interest to secure your flock more robustly and protect your assets accordingly. Although I am a dog lover, it would be a shame if you were to mistake your neighbor's hounds for coyotes under the cover of darkness.

I'm sure it was they're dogs because I saw them attacking the hen. They had just killed the rooster.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Good advise, strengthen your coop/run/property, and pack some heat.

 

[Mattemma]

Kill the dogs when they trespass,or befriend and relocate them.Roaming dogs can be a threat to your safety so be careful.SSS to avoid a nfh.

 

[kitten6566]

Keep us posted on what happened after you showed the law to your neighbors.

 

[blitz1027]

Sorry I haven't replied in a while. Well since my heated conversation with my neighbor the day it happened I haven't seen the dogs. I'm guessing she hauled them off after I got so heated. I have all the info regarding nuisance animals printed out and ready to take to her if they show up again. I've also informed my neighbor on the other side what happened and knowing him he will shoot them on site.

 

[InaraBlack]

Hello all.
I'm hoping someone can help...
The neighbors around me let their dogs run around, unchecked. They almost always run in packs (being dogs) of three to six head, and are different breeds. There's one that's part boxer and one is definitely part pitt. I've already had to chase them away from my run, which we reinforced all last week. My husband is away for long periods of time, which only leaves myself to take care of things. I went outside this morning to find all eight of my girls dead.

Well, I found parts of them anyway. Something got into the run by pushing the corner of the door in and razed the run. I didn't hear a dang thing with all the wind last night and feel just horrible. I'm trying to look up the laws for the area, I live in Somerset which is about 15-20 minutes from San Antonio, but from reading up on the animal services I'm probably about to get in an arguement because the reviews were so bad I'm dreading to call and ask for help. What I need to know is if anyone around my area knows the laws for predatory animals (dogs) on private property. The place we moved into is not fenced in, but that run was nearly taller than I was (5'3") I'd hate to kill a dog, someone's pet, but I know the saying- A dog on its owner's property is a pet, on anyone else's property it's a predator. We can't afford to lose any future chickens because they're the investment as food, and we plan on raising rabbits for meat as well, which will also be outside. My girls were only a couple months old and now I'm envisioning myself sleeping outside with a friggin shotgun to protect them. Or, the future flock I mean. I read one of the threads on here where a woman shot at a dog that was killing her chickens, shot at it with a bbgun and animal abuse charges were filed against her.

Can anyone give any advise? I'd be very appreciative. Now I have to go out and clean up and try to think of how I'm gonna tell my little boy his chickens are dead.

 

[blucoondawg]

Sorry your birds were killed, first thing you should do is call the Sheriff's Dept. or Police Dept. depending on where you live, and report the killing, tell them of these people letting these dogs roam and tell them who the owners are and where they live if possible so the cops can pay them a visit. Next time you see the dogs roaming report it to the Sheriff's Dept. and keep doing so until it is handled. The owners may choose not to do anything but if you are calling and reporting the problem then it is on record which will help you out with future problems. Try to see if there is a way to prove the dogs killed your birds, look for dog tracks in the dirt, these large dogs will have large tracks and unless you have wild wolves in the area no wild dog will make a track as large as these large stray dogs. If you had a fairly well made area for the birds it would probably take a larger dog like this to break into it, so odds are in my opinion that it was those dogs who are the culprit. Take any pictures you can and also take pictures, video is better, to show these dogs on your property and running the neighborhood loose.

I too have a neighbor out here in the country where I live who is a complete *****, he has about 30 hound dogs which are starving to death half the time cuz the guy is too lazy to work for a living so he usually doesn't feed them well, they bark constantly irritating the few neighbors we have and they have gotten loose many times and damaged property, all the neighbors have plenty of complaints filed with the Sheriff's dept and the Sheriff has emailed me a full copy of our county's animal control laws, if his dog comes on my property and attacks my pets or livestock I have every right to kill that dog and I already told the cops this is what I fully intend to do. I cannot imagine a rural area which wouldn't have a law like this, you have to be able to defend your property, now if ur bird goes on their yard and gets killed that's a different story. It also has nothing to do with whether or not your birds are caged, where I live I can free range my birds all I want on my property and if those dogs come they are fair game for my rifle, and all the prior complaints against this piece of trash stand in my favor if any lawsuit were filed, which since his dogs were killing my stock I would be the one filing suit to be reimbursed for my animals and vet fees and as much "emotional distress" as I could make the judge believe I am suffering.

 

[jasmer]

Many rural jurisdictions don't have an animal control department. In these cases, you call the Sheriff's department and have somebody come over immediately to physically see the damage. Take pictures so you have a permanent record and write down EVERYTHING, every little detail, on a piece of paper, on a word document on your computer, in a journal, somewhere so you have it on record and will always remember the details, including descriptions of the dogs you saw. Ask the deputy who comes out what you can do if this happens again, see if you can shoot the dogs when they are on your property. Most rural jurisdictions will allow you to destroy roving dogs or will at least turn a blind eye to it because they are actually a public health and safety risk. They aren't just a threat to your livestock, but potentially to you as well. You don't know those dogs, and it is not your responsibility to get to know them.

The people who lived behind us used to have a bunch of pit bulls. The dogs were little goofballs, wonderful with people, but harassed the neighbor's dog and chickens, and the owners didn't do anything about it until the neighbors started shooting at their dogs. That is how dense people are, they won't do anything to solve the massive inconvenience, nuisance, and property damage their dogs cause until YOU become a threat to their precious little puppies. The neighbor has shown she cannot keep the dogs away from your chickens, so if she still has the dogs or gets new dogs in the future, this will happen again. I'm not one to just shoot random dogs I see on my property, but since her dogs have attacked your chickens twice now, she does not need a third warning to keep her dogs off your property. Next time you see them on your side of the property line, shoot them. Definitely be sure you can do this legally before you try it, there might be firearm discharge regulations where you're zoned (it does happen even in rural zoning sometimes).

Meanwhile perhaps you can beef up your chicken coop and run with some hardware cloth and skirting, more durable gate locks, etc, might need to raise the fence, I don't know how high yours is. Where I live you can shoot problem dogs in rural areas AND the neighbor would be required to replace the chickens her dogs helped kill.