Neighbors may be teasing my Emu & Ostrich - Need help w/ correct wording for a sign...

[azelgin]

Yeah, we've been her for 13 years. I first travelled through Tucson, in 1984. At the time, I thought, "What a ****hole! Why would anybody live around here?".
And now, here I am. By choice.

 

[The Sheriff]

I had people walk their toddlers along my property and lift the kids up to see the emus and our mammoth donkey who has issues with strangers. They would also tell the kids to walk over to the fence and reach in and pet them. I would run out every time I saw someone doing it. I finally had these signs made and put them every six feet along the fence line. I also put up no trespassing signs to make sure I wasn't going to held liable if anything happened. It seemed to work. I need to put them up at this house as well. We have a Christian high school behind us here and the kids come down the hill to see the emus. A couple of times the soccer coach has yelled at them and told them to climb the fence and go into the pasture to retrieve the soccer ball when it flew over onto our property! Are you kidding me?

 

[steny03]

I think I would go with both "No Trespassing" and " Do not disturb livestock" signs.

 

[moonjelly]

I suppose saying they are guard animals does not necessarily imply they are dangerous or does it?

I have in the past saw some little kids climb over my fence to try and touch my animals. What are they thinking? They could kill them in a split second. Even worse, where are the parents?

I bought a general no trespasing sign tonight. Still thinking on what to make specifically for the Emu and Ostrich pen.

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, Moonjelly!

Yeh, I think the word 'guard' implies 'option of using force in the process of guarding.' I have a background in linguistics, and 'chasing' subtlety of meaning in words is part of it.

For example, the reason we would laugh at the sign 'Fluffy Pink Soft Toy Guards This House Two Nights A Week. You Choose Which Nights' is because we know the Mr Fluffy Pink poses no risk.

se

 

[moonjelly]

Now, does anyone know the best place to have a sign made online?

Maybe I'll make them for all my different animals, "Warning: Sheep may do absolutely nothing. Be aware of your surroundings."

 

[ChaoSS]

No trespassing and Do Not Disturb would be the most simple.


If you want to have fun, put up a sign warning about the hazardous contagious animal quarantine area.

See if everyone keeps to the other side of the street.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Here's the thing - keeping it "short and sweet" (No Trespassing/Keep Back XXX feet) is the way to go - making a command of it, vs. a suggestion (Birds May Bite/Do Not Disturb) will eliminate the million and one justifications and arguments that the sign reader will come up with to overrule a "suggestion" sign. The former is very clear and direct - the latter leads to, "Well, they won't bite ME" or "Well, I am not disturbing them - I'm just enjoying them" - people will come up with all sorts of reasoning for the suggestion signs as to why the suggestion does not apply to *them* because they are special snowflakes.

 

[The Sheriff]

My problem was that my fence was set back to allow for an easement for the property owners behind us to drive through. They could legally be on that area of roadside, so I couldn't tell them to keep off. I just wanted them to know that we weren't operating a petting zoo.

 

[moonjelly]

Well, some teenager (or at least I think) along with his younger brothers or friends or who knows. Were out there yesterday trying to get the Emu and Ostrich to bite them it appeared (my house is a little far from the yard) for fun. I went out there to tell them to stay off my property (as again once you are near the fence you are on it), but they were gone by the time I got down there. Meanwhile, my LGD is going crazy, and the kids just didn't care.

I immediately took a no trespassing sign and reserved it and painted on the blank silver side in bright neon orange letters, "Do not approach. Birds are shy. You may scare them." and then went and hung it up in the same spot I assumed they were standing (there is a ton of brush and trees in the way).

I'll have some made or just make more of my own to put along the fence-line, but I was so surprised to see that after making this thread. Before I had never witnessed anything so bad. Especially to lure my ostrich over there, is incredibly stupid. I am going to get no trespassing signs with stakes to be put in before you can even reach the fence-line as well. It may have something to do with kids visiting a relative for Easter that needed to come down and see them. Hopefully they won't be back or will respect the sign. My neighborhood is really not a busy place.

I would be happy to show them the birds, but I don't know what people are thinking messing with them and touching someone's animals like that. They could have easily taken something off the boys and swallowed it and becoming impacted, which could have led to death.