Two shorthaired Pointers got 10 of our chickens

[Wattles]

Cara wrote: I couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately the majority of dog owners are not as committed to exercising their pets (hence the large number of obese animals), and i'm sure you'll agree that the GSP isn't your average family dog. They are awesome dogs if you work with them, but they're not an animal you can slack off walking for one day or expect to snooze on the sofa all day. They certainly won't let you forget about their needs.

yes, yes. I try to disuade anyone who wants to get one of these dogs just because they think it's 'cute' Ugh. I wish people would do their research and actually understand that these aren't dogs that will lie around on the sofa all day like slugs - they're high maintenance.

Tara​

 

[Wattles]

chickenfarmer wrote:

I'm so sorry for your loss. I had one neighbor ( a lawyer) offer me $200 for his dog killing some of my chickens. I wouldn't accept it because I was so angry and didn't want to make him feel better. My chickens were penned in their run and the dogs broke in. I was in my kitchen and heard the commotion and saw him trying (and not succeeding) to remove his two dogs. We have strict leash laws but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I call animal control, make a statement, get it notarized, they pay the fine, and it starts over again. It's been very, very frustrating! They don't get it at all! I had another neighbor say to the animal control officer "so, what does a chicken cost?" I don't know about your neighbors but my neighbors feel they've bought a house in the country so their animals can just roam freely. I hope you have better luck and find the owners. We all put so much into raising our chickens and just want them to be safe.

The dogs actually broke into your run??? Good grief, how awful. And how shocking to find your neighbor IN your run not even being able to control his own dogs. That would have really made me angry. That's trespassing at the very least. How frustrating it is to deal with neighbors who just don't understand and who don't respect chickens as pets. I am going through the same thing now with my neighbors who have never apologized to me and have offered me only $100 for three 3-month old pullets. It's enough to make you just want to scream. Hopefully, though, through groups like this and more exposure of the public to pet chickens all across the country, things are starting to slowly improve.

Tara​

 

[thechickenfarmer]

Hi Tara,
I find it really frustrating that my neighbor and his wife are both lawyers, they just look the other way where the law applies to their dogs. By way of an excuse the guy actually said to me, "But I didn't know you had chickens". I really lost it and let him have it (verbally, of course).

 

[Wattles]

OMG, no way - that's exactly what my neighbors said to me in an official letter they sent to me! I haven't sent my response to them but I'm quite offended by that remark. I will diplomatically state that it's none of their business what pets I have and that does not excuse their dog's actions. You have my sympathies having to deal with a super-lawyer couple like that. I grew up in a hyperactive lawyered up family (father, sister, cousins, were all lawyers and now my husband is interested in law school

). Lawyers can be very hard to deal with - they love to argue (that's what they're trained to do) and always believe that they're right and that they can manipulate the facts to shape their argument. I'm glad you're not letting them bully you. They have to be held accountable for their pet's actions - it's that simple.

Tara

 

[SpottedCrow]

Just because they have education doesn't mean that they have the sense that the Goddess gave a goat.

My neighbour's dog, Buddy is a GSP and he's hardly ever walked. He can go over a 6 foot stockade fence with no trouble to get in at my birds. He gets out and doesn't come back for hours. He's almost gotten clobbered on the main drag a couple of times. How they walk him is to let him out, then a couple of hours later, to drive up and down the street honking the horn until he jumps into the car.

I just know that if he got in and killed either of my babies, he WOULD never ever be going back home...I have special predator shovel that would be put to good use...

 

[meanmom]

Tara--thanks so much--your timing couldn't have been better. It has been so cold for way too long and we couldn't bury the chickens in the frozen ground. So we planned to cremate them the other night. Instead we did all we could just to shovel ourselves out from all the snow. But tonight--New Years Eve, we built the bon fire using wood from the "black forest"--an area where we put huge branches that were trimmed or had fallen from trees in our yard. The chickens loved hanging out on top of and within the branches all summer long. As the fire burned, we read the poem you wrote about in your post as a remembrance of the wonderful time we spent with them. It was perfect. The ceremony gave us and the kids at least the start of closure. Finding the owners of the dogs is the next step. BTW, we have found a litter of Great Pyrenees puppies. Hopefully we will be getting one within the week. I really look forward to having a working dog to guard the animals and the kids from the expected and the unexpected. You take care and everyone have a great end to a very interesting year!

Happy New Year all!
Lee



Quote:
I wish you well in overcoming this

Tara

 

[Buster]

"sss" is the best action in my book. You can try to get them for "dog at large". They actually have to go to court over it in Idaho. In the meantime, how many more times is the dog going to get into your chickens before the owner does something? I say permanantly take care of the problem. It's as much the owner's fault, but if your chickens are dead, the reason for their death should be dealt with too. I would expect the same treatment for my dogs if they were out terrorizing the neighborhood. And it would be my fault, not the shooter, because I let the dog roam unsupervised. One time I had a stock dog that got loose and walked through a neighbor's cow pasture. He told me it was chasing his cows and he would shoot it if it happened again. I was watching and knew it wasn't but kept the dog in better after that. One day his cows got out and he wanted me to use my dog to get them back in! I told the dog to lie down and helped him myself. I wasn't about to let my dog work his cows after he threatened to shoot it. All the same, IF my dog chased his cows (unattended) and got shot, it would be my responsibility, not his. I'd do the same myself.

 

[meanmom]

Hi,
just an update on Martha, the chicken that "got away". We found her later the night of the attack. She had a bloody beak, lost a lot of feathers and it looked like road rash on her back, lost most of her tail feathers and had two nasty puncture wounds on her underside.

I thought for sure she would not survive. She seemed to be in shock. But I read on this forum, on some post, on some topic, that giving the injured chickens aspirin water (5 crushed aspirin to 1 gallon of water) helps alleviate pain and stress and lets them heal.

We put her in a cage in our basement with food and aspirin water and just waited. Now, just short of 2 weeks later, we let her back into the coop. She looks a little scrappier and was a bit skittish at first, but she has healed really well and is growing back all her feathers.

The first thing she did was eat and scratch. The next thing was become den mother to all the other hens. Any time one of the horny young roosters attacked a hen, there was Martha, peck-peck-pecking at them until they backed off. When I left she was spitting out a beakful of black cochin feathers of a rooster twice as big as her!

I am so glad she is okay. What a trooper. And a great big thanks to the person who gave the aspirin water advice. I think it saved her life.

Take care, Lee

 

[thechickenfarmer]

That's so great! Glad Martha is doing better

 

[SpottedCrow]

I love happy endings!!!

I'm so glad that she's doing fine!