Vandalism and Freeing Animals Illegally

[Miss Lydia]

Have you called the law @RainForestBird ?

 

[RainForestBird]

No, I was the only person here. Someone was most likely here before it started snowing in the morning. It was snowing hard, and footprints, if they were on the soil would have been covered in a matter of minutes. If a person were here and not wanting to get caught after the deed they would have been careful not to leave evidence. It is a simple thing to walk up to a gate, unlatch it, watch the ducks walk out and then shut it without leaving evidence.

Could a family member have forgotten to completely close or lock the gate? Without footprints or evidence of someone on the property, it is not likely some stranger was there.

 

[RainForestBird]

No foot prints inside the gate @Milky

None, which leaves me to believe they opened the gate from outside, let the ducks and then closed it.

 

[Melky]

No, I was the only person here. Someone was most likely here before it started snowing in the morning. It was snowing hard, and footprints, if they were on the soil would have been covered in a matter of minutes. If a person were here and not wanting to get caught after the deed they would have been careful not to leave evidence. It is a simple thing to walk up to a gate, unlatch it, watch the ducks walk out and then shut it without leaving evidence.

No matter but an enclosure on all sides of some sort might be in order. Mine are domesticated animals also but given the chance they would hop a fence and fly. Mine are in a fenced in coop/run. All roofed. This might help protect you in the future.

 

[SniperGoose]

Yikes, people can be so awful sometimes..I'm so sorry about your ducks! I hope you're able to find them, or at least find out who did this. I've never personally had this happen, as I live out in the middle of nowhere and all, but I'd suggest some motion-sensing flood lights and/or security cameras. That would help deter people (and some animals) going forward I think. I know that isn't always a cheap option, but it could really help in the future with things like this.

 

[ShannonR]

There are other animals, besides humans, that are capable of opening gates though. I don't know the whole situation, and haven't seen any pictures or anything, but I feel like other possibilities besides a human should be considered. Bears and raccoons in particular come to mind....

It just seems like jumping to the worst possible conclusion right off the bat to not explore every possibility. I'm not saying a human didn't do it... just that there are alternate possibilities.

 

[123RedBeard]

Critters ... "IF" they can open the gate ... they are not likely to close it afterwards ...

Camera's are wonderful things ...

OP, you said you didn't see any foot prints inside the gate ... what did it look like outside the gate?

How much snow, if any had fallen at 1am? ... How much at 7am?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I mean, I've had it happen, but nothing came from it. We had someone (90% sure it was our rental neighbor) open our gate to our fence AND the chicken fence. So we started padlocking the main gate. Then one day we came home and found an entire board ripped off of our fence (it had been previously loose at the bottom but didn't matter because it was a solid wood board on a 6' fence. There was clear evidence someone pried it out because the nails were badly bent and then it had been carefully propped back up into the same space it was removed from), the chicken fence was open, and the birds scattered around the neighborhood. We had to watch them and then catch them at night instead of calling them in with food because someone called the cops and they tried to "help" by trying to CHASE my chickens home!? They did NOT wanna go near people after that! We filed police reports, fixed the fence, and spread rumors through the neighborhood that we were installing cameras and going to seek maximum legal action against anyone who touched our property, even if that meant hiring lawyers.

We didn't actually install the cameras and never had another problem after that.

 

[SillyChicken]

I would recommend a trail camera, hidden. Hope you get the birds back.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I feel so bad for you! I hope you get them back and catch the culprit.