This is just flat out crazy.......

[seedcorn]

Man killed neighbor dogs that were after his chickens and he could get 2 years in jail and $50,000 fine..........Wow. If the dogs were on neighbors property, I could understand it, but on his property?

http://new.wset.com/news/stories/0707/437466.html

 

[lacyloo]

thats just crazy ,i would have did the save thing if the dogs were on my property pesterizing my chickens.!!

 

[sara]

i don't understand why no one is responsible to keep their dogs on their own properties. Our neighbors dogs constantly are in our pasture, I wish they would get a good shock from the fence. If they ever touch our calves my neighbors will be without dogs cause DH just wont tolerate it.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

We are dealing with neighbors dogs right now. We have been calling animal control just about everyday now. Nothing was getting done until a friend of another neighbor was over for a visit. Guy happens to be retired PD. He called PD and raised cain!! There is now a vicious dog complaint in the works. We will probably have to go to court to deal with this. Fun (?!) thing is, this guy that has the dog, if out on bail for murder charges. Could get real interesting around here!!

 

[MTchick]

That is a sad situation, but it underlines the fact that if you take action like that (shoot something) then sometimes the repercussions are quite serious. Whenever I read about people threatening to shoot dogs, hawks, etc I always wonder if they realize the can of worms that they might be opening. I'm not opposed to killing something that is threatening your livestock, mind you. I just hope that the legality/defensibility of it somehow enters into the decision!

At the bottom of that article is an interesting caveat...

"The commonwealth's attorney says Virginia law allows you to use reasonable force if you or your property is threatened. But Pennington's actions are not being considered reasonable. He is now going to try to prove otherwise. "

-MTchick

 

[seedcorn]

MTchick, I take that to mean "It's only chickens they were after". That's seems to be the general attitude from people. If the dogs are after your pets, cattle, hogs, etc, then it's serious but chickens, who cares.

If my dog is on neighbor's property, then whatever happens, happens. It's my job to keep my dog(or any other animal I'm responsible for) home.

 

[eggcetra_farms]

That really rubs me the wrong way. I wrote Campbell County a letter. I don't know if they'll read it and I'm sure it doesn't matter what I think to them, but man that pisses me off! I'd do the same thing. I've spent too much time, money, energy and love on my chickens to let some dog eat them. Had the owners been responsible with their dogs they would have never been shot. I think they should be fined.

 

[Chickenlover88]

I don't believe he should have shot the dogs...It isn't that hard to catch a dog or scare it away. Yes I might loose a couple of chickens before I can catch the dog or scare it away but I don't have to kill a dog. The dogs in the article were just headed towards the chickens or headed towards the person. I think he is just trigger happy.

 

[HobbyChickener]

My take on the law where I reside is it predator has to be threatening your "well being or livelyhood" Meaning that you it will hurt you or take something from you that costs you money you have the right to stop it. Example if I find a deer in the middle of my corn field I can shoot it and not get in trouble for it but the kicker is that I am not allowed to do anything with it after I kill it. Can't eat it, can't donate it, can't even feed it to the dogs it just has to lay there and decompose.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
Now I'm not saying what I would do one way or the other because I don't want to get involved in all of this, but...
As a property owner looking at a dog I don't know, I'd be afraid to approach it. Chances are, a domestic dog wouldn't be afraid if a human approached it and tried to capture it, but I wouldn't want to find out the hard way.