Our Babies Died a Terrible Death

[50-45-1]

There is a mentality that some folks have that say Hey, I am in the country, and my dog deserves freedom.
Well I am in a country setting with close to 100 acres. I free range my chickens and have three guardian dogs. MY DOGS are trained to stay in the yard and immediate house barn and outbuildings area, and they only stray to the back forty when chasing off preditors.
A loose chicken killing dog will meet with lots of resistance here.
I usually fire a warning shot the first time and that has been sufficient a couple times.
My neighbor quarter mile away thinks his beagle should freely roam and hunt . It has shown up to chase our chickens one time, at which our german shepherd pinned it to the ground with a death grip on its neck. We collected the dog back to the neighbor with a warning" keep it home because next time we are shooting it" two weeks later that beagle was killed being hit by a car. His next beagle was lost in the woods and was probably eaten by coyotes. He now has a third beagle and I heard it had something treed in our woods last week. more trouble to come unfortunately.
This guy will continue to burn through beagles because he refuses to change his mindset.
i Love my dogs enough to spend time training and watching them. I like my chickens too, and I have not put all this time and effort into this to have some irresponsible dog owner distroy them and then say" Oh well, dogs will be dogs, that's their nature. Sorry about your luck".
Loose dogs get into all kinds of trouble of every sort. its ultimately the dog owners responsiblity.

 

[SaludaChicken]

There is a mentality that some folks have that say Hey, I am in the country, and my dog deserves freedom.
Well I am in a country setting with close to 100 acres. I free range my chickens and have three guardian dogs. MY DOGS are trained to stay in the yard and immediate house barn and outbuildings area, and they only stray to the back forty when chasing off preditors.
A loose chicken killing dog will meet with lots of resistance here.
I usually fire a warning shot the first time and that has been sufficient a couple times.
My neighbor quarter mile away thinks his beagle should freely roam and hunt . It has shown up to chase our chickens one time, at which our german shepherd pinned it to the ground with a death grip on its neck. We collected the dog back to the neighbor with a warning" keep it home because next time we are shooting it" two weeks later that beagle was killed being hit by a car. His next beagle was lost in the woods and was probably eaten by coyotes. He now has a third beagle and I heard it had something treed in our woods last week. more trouble to come unfortunately.
This guy will continue to burn through beagles because he refuses to change his mindset.
i Love my dogs enough to spend time training and watching them. I like my chickens too, and I have not put all this time and effort into this to have some irresponsible dog owner distroy them and then say" Oh well, dogs will be dogs, that's their nature. Sorry about your luck".
Loose dogs get into all kinds of trouble of every sort. its ultimately the dog owners responsiblity.

Thank you for your insight 50-45-1. I am not fortunate enough to have that big a space, but my chicks are in a coop/pen with most of the yard protected with heavy gauged wire, except for several places. This dog is aggressive and waited for us to leave as he tried the day before to get to them and my wife had to throw sticks at him, with him trying to jump on my wife. When the owner came to get his dead dog(at least I thought he was dead), all he could do was scream and tell me I shot his dog. He didn't even acknowledge my massacred birds. He said they were just chickens.
Saluda Chickens

 

[50-45-1]

I reciently saw an episode of Judge Judy where chickens were masicsicured by 2 loose neighborhood dogs. The chicken owner shot video of the dogs entering the property and Judge Judy awarded them $100.00 per bird. And I think there were 40 birds.
Again I hope you took lots of pictures of your property damage and your dead birds.
Good luck to you!

 

[McChooky]

I've got the opposite problem. My neighbors chickens keep crossing the street to come over here. (His rooster was killed by a car a couple days ago) My dogs aren't good with my chickens so I know they wouldn't be good with his. Their barking alone would terrify a chicken and has mine (soon as one flew over the fence the dogs would go after it ).I hope none of his chickens ever come in my yard while the dogs are outside.

 

[SaludaChicken]

I've got the opposite problem. My neighbors chickens keep crossing the street to come over here. (His rooster was killed by a car a couple days ago) My dogs aren't good with my chickens so I know they wouldn't be good with his. Their barking alone would terrify a chicken and has mine (soon as one flew over the fence the dogs would go after it ).I hope none of his chickens ever come in my yard while the dogs are outside.

WOW!

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Oh, SaludaChicken, how awful! Dogs have a special place in my heart forever but I have a big problem with dogs that are allowed to roam off-leash which is illegal where I live. An off-leash dog attacked two of ours while we were out walking them (ours are always leashed) and we ended up with two traumatized dogs and a big ER vet bill. Now we take hiking poles with us when we walk the dogs just in case we need to fend off another attacker. It would hurt my heart but I would not hesitate to kill any animal that tried to kill my dogs or chickens.

I am so sorry you're going through all this. Get a good attorney and hang in there. Hugs to you.

 

[SaludaChicken]

Oh, SaludaChicken, how awful! Dogs have a special place in my heart forever but I have a big problem with dogs that are allowed to roam off-leash which is illegal where I live. An off-leash dog attacked two of ours while we were out walking them (ours are always leashed) and we ended up with two traumatized dogs and a big ER vet bill. Now we take hiking poles with us when we walk the dogs just in case we need to fend off another attacker. It would hurt my heart but I would not hesitate to kill any animal that tried to kill my dogs or chickens.

I am so sorry you're going through all this. Get a good attorney and hang in there. Hugs to you.

Thank you, Emma. This is very nerve racking. I have always been a patriot and law abiding citizen. Hugs back!
Saluda Chickens

 

[Swbertrand1]

Hi everyone,
It is with a very heavy heart, that we lost our 6 leghorns to a very aggressive dog. The dog was so aggressive that he literally tore the chicken wire out in order to get to our hens. Our hens didn't stand a chance.
I shot the dog and the owner was so out raged he threatened me and my wife. No concern for my babies.
He will no longer be a menace(the dog). I put him away.
By the way, he was not interested in what his dog did as I tried to show him. He wouldn't even look!
Saluda Chickens, RIP!

I'm not sure how to respond to that, but I'm glad you neutralized the threat. Like others have said, many dog owners are irresponsible. In cases like that, you don't have much choice.

It's a bit surprising that they threatened you and your wife however. Were you still armed at the time??? If so, that takes some large stones to do someone holding a weapon that is clearly willing and able to use it!

Maybe in time they'll come around and apologize for the carnage and heartbreak their dog caused by not being properly fenced in or on a leash. Very sorry for your loss!

 

[oldhen2345]

I cannot believe the charge would hold. SC codes only specifically state shooting in protection of sheep. My county Spartanburg has codes shooting in protection of all livestock. I'm not finding that in Saluda codes, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right spot. It would likely fall under common law. But you can't hunt down and shoot a fleeing animal. It has to be in the act. Did you get lots of pictures?

Let’s hope the judge has chickens

 

[oldhen2345]

I sympathize. A possum or coon got all but one of my chickens a couple of months ago. I live in town with a 6 ft privacy fence and a pig wire fence around the chicken area. The coop and small run have hardwire cloth with capstones around the perimeter. After one attack by an owl early one morning- right at daylight, I started locking the run door each evening and opening it around 8am. I did not think about the nesting box lid having broken hinges. The varmint moved the lid askew enough to climb in and kill my flock. They could not get out because the door was latched. My fault and it was a painful lesson. Hinges and latches secure now. New flock about ready to go outside- I am nervous. Will put landscape bricks on top of the nesting boxes just in case as well as a padlock latch on the door.