SSS...and then bury it deeper? Did anyone see this??

[tinahoak]

My personal thoughts are :if it was the first time and he had the opportunity to grab the dog and take it home , he should have. Call the police and make the dog owner pay for the birds. Second time there are no holds barred: shoot the darn thing. I just keep thinking what if that was my dog?

But then again , my dogs think they are chickens ....they hang out in the coop with the girls and the girls lay all over them....quite funny to see!

So it NEVER would be MY dogs....they have been trained not to even THINK " that the girls might taste like chicken"

 

[koop]

I see all the sides that are taken on this issue.
I can see that this guy has gained nothing by shooting that dog, now he will have to go to court to defend himself (and got assaulted). When just talking to his neighbor might have fixed the problem (neighbor might have tried to make things right, I would).
But I have seen a situation where the dog owner didn't believe that his dogs were the ones who attacked a bunch of pure breed registered Holstein heifer calves (yes they didn't touch the males). And nothing could be done because of a lack of proof, but wait for them to come back.

I know he was just defending his property, and had every right to do that.
Two things he could have done different would be, add a "D" to SSS, making it "shoot, drive, shovel, and shut-up".
Or shoot and have animal control pick up the dog and bring it to the owners, then he can explain the laws governing dog ownership.

Doing what the law "allows" isn't always the "best" thing to do.

 

[MomtoSyd&Emma]

This all brings back something that happened here when we first bought this home we have now, I had a HUGE black labrador that was a rescue from a severe mistreatment case (he had cigarette burns on his privates, down his ears, they shot fireworks at him, starved, and beat him, before finally neighbors turned them in) we took him and all his problems in and I adored that dog, BUT he would kill any and I mean any cat he could.

The neighbors that lived in the house next to ours had a ton of outdoor cats (I LOVE cats and have 2 of my own now) I nicely walked over and explained to them the issues our dog has, and that he will not be leaving our yard unless he is leashed but that if their cats come in our fenced in yard then they are fair game to him, she was furious with me, called me names, called animal control saying our dog was vicious (he wasnt just hated cats, he loved all people) and animal control came out, saw the problem we had and ticketed HER for her cats at large as there is a law here for cats loose.

Thankfully he never killed any of her cats and they moved not soon after this all happened. BUT I am controlling my animals on my property that is all I ask of others to do!

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
I am so sorry for your attack... I know it was traumatizing to experience and deal with the effects. I however stand by my opinion (of which I am entitled). I specifically stated I don't advocate at large dogs, but I also refuse to paint all dogs with the same brush. It is tragic and horrible and infuriating that a child is mauled by a dog..... but that does not mean a dog that kills a chicken will attack a child.
Yep, I laugh at the concept of all chicken killing dogs are going to for sure attack a child.... I have unfortunately had chicken / rabbit killers, but they never ever showed aggression (killing a chicken is not necessarily aggression - my young Lab killed 5 who just didn't survive his "joyful retrieve".... they never lost a feather). I notice you say a "stray" dog - that dynamic changes the who theme of this thread - shooting someone's pet over 1 (only 1 implied) incident.

I'm with her on that dogs that attack chickens and other 'Prey' Animals WILL eventually, if in the right situation, KILL or maul children. I was not 2 years old and a dog with only small animal attacks, A family pet, tore my face up. If the animal had been put down for showing aggression towards other animals then that would not have happened and 20 years later I would not be left with scars on my face.

Dogs that kill chickens will if in the right circumstances kill children.

By the way. Want to know what that owner got? A slap on the wrist and sent home with their 'beloved' pet.

Know what I got? A fear of all things doctor related, bad enough they HAVE to gas me just to draw blood along with months of recovery and surgeries, I had to have another surgery just two years ago from that incident.

One incident is ALL IT TAKES to kill a kid. ONE incident is all it takes to show the animals true nature, whether or not the owner wants to believe it. Shoot or put to sleep the aggressive(Chicken Killer) dogs or it may be YOUR family pet that maims your friends child next.

The casual readers and posters have no idea how many of the 50,000 members here are living the rest of our lives with the result of a animal attack. Though I do not fear animals this day, the attack shaped me for the rest of my life in ways that even I probably am not aware. Even discussions like these or news reports bring back horrible memories, this is much the same as any crime victim that is violently attacked. It is something you learn to live with but never ever fully get over. Some of the members need to take a hard look at their loved ones and then google the images of dog attack victims and maybe they might get a smidgen of understanding.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
This is true... i agree. Technically ANY dog is capable if biting....
but what i was saying was..its the dogs that are human agressive and fear biters that WOULD concern me, personally.

Although..if its a strange dog and you dont know anything about it.... yes, stay away from it... you never know.
*dosent mean you have to shoot it though..* (just had to add that in..tee hee hee..)

 

[noodleroo]

I lost a black lab almost 20 years ago that someone stole out of her kennel in my front yard-they took her food bowls, leash, everything. I found her dead, run over in the road about 2 miles away from my house the next day. Apparantly she had gotten away from the thief and tried to come home. It was a horrible experience.

I can only imagine the horror for those of you that have been attacked by animals. My experience with animals has been very different so my opinions are based on what I know and feel. But I do understand how those that have had different circumstances will have a different opinion and perspective and everybody's got to do what they've got to do.

My point is, that even in the most caring household, unforseen things can happen like my houseguest leaving the front door wide open with my pets inside, or, my dog being stolen from my yard. I would hate for someone to SSS my animal if it were just a one time incident.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
My foster son left the deck gate open and we lost all our ducks to my dog... hes also left the dog pen gate open and my dogs got out...
Yes, he KNEW better.(hes 19). and now hes not allowed to even TOUCH any of the deck gates or dog pen gates with out someone being right there to supervise him to make sure that its shut...
He hates it.. says he feels like a baby..but OOH WELL... i'm not playing around. I lost my most loved duck Plucky...

 

[Orchid]

Personally I think it is really hard to make any kind of a judgment based on this article alone. There are so many potential interpretations of what actually happened - who knows the truth? Not I. The article left me with more questions than answers.

As to the subject of dogs at large - we live way out in the country. Our closest neighbor with a dog is almost a half mile away, so we don't see much for stray dogs. That being said, I was in the embarrassing situation of having our uncollared lab at large last year. It was, to quote Lemony Snicket, a series of unfortunate events that led to him being over two miles from home (as the crow flies, a lot further by road or forest trail) and with no identification. The day before, he had somehow managed to chew through his nylon collar, and living 20 minutes from town I didn't run in that night to get him a new collar. The next day while we were at work, for the first time, he jumped out of his six foot high kennel and went exploring. We are fortunate enough to have wonderful neighbors (yeah, out here, people over two miles away are still "neighbors") who put him in a kennel at their house since they knew, as they put it "a dog this well cared for belonged to someone".

I was frantically making phone calls and driving back roads until I found him. If someone had shot him, thinking he was a stray, I wouldn't have blamed them - but I sure would have felt awful not knowing what happened to my beloved dog. Who, by the way, has a new collar (with tags, of course), a strong cover over his kennel, and a microchip.

IMHO, there seems to be some differences between people who live in town, those who live in suburbia, those who live in "ruralburbia" as I like to call it, and people who truly live in the country. Out in the country where we are, I don't know anyone who would blame you for shooting their dog if it was in the middle of attacking your chickens, rabbits, calves - whatever the case may be. The majority of them would in fact apologize and offer to pay for whatever you lost. On the flip side, I wouldn't sue a neighbor because their dog was doing what its instincts told it to do and ripped up my chickens.

On the subject of chicken killers being child killers...there's no clear cut answer to that one. You can generalize about dogs as a species, you can generalize about breeds as a whole, but every dog is an individual. A stray dog that kills chickens may well be a dog that will try to kill anything smaller than or equal in size to itself. A family raised Labrador may view all feathered creatures as their next playtoy and be the best friend of every child he meets. OR the stray dog may be the best friend of every child he meets, and the family raised Labrador may get his ear pulled by the toddler one too many times and snap. My opinion is that any dog I don't know has the potential to be dangerous, and any dog I do know has the potential to be dangerous. Which is why, if you're smart, you train your dogs to the best of your ability and never leave them unsupervised in a tempting situation, whether it be with chickens or toddlers or a roast beef on the counter.

That is also why, if you're smart, a stray dog that shows itself to be dangerous to anything needs to be eliminated.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

The person that should have been protecting that poor dog was it's negligent owner.

I have to say, that in all the times I have gone to people that let their dogs run loose, killing and causing property destruction, I have never ONCE had any of those people contain their dogs after that. I will still always do what I can for dogs with bad owners, because it's not the dog's fault. I will also understand that unless a miracle happens, it will in all probability, do no good.

 

[Rammy]

Im so sorry you had to rescue a lab from apparently cruel people. Anyone who abuses an animal should be shot. Just my opinion. Im glad he now has a loving home with responsible owners. I have a beagle and I KNOW he would kill my chickens. I had to redo the wire on my fence with nice strong woven wire since the old welded stuff rusted and until the fencers came out to put it up, he was on a cable tie out leash and the chickens stayed in thier pen because if they were let to free range as I sometimes let them do, they would of wandered into the backyard, which is right next to thier coop and well, any deaths would of been my fault. Hes fat, but hes quick. As stated, we dont know the whole story. Articles in the paper are generalized to say who, what , when , where , and why. The emotional factor is removed. Nobody knows the truth but the people involved.

Rammy