- Apr 9, 2011
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Quote:
I think there's three factors at work. One is that people aren't letting dogs run the way they used to*- until I was in my late twenties, opening the door in the morning and letting the dogs out to run loose was pretty much SOP for everyone, and it discouraged other predators from coming close to the house. Second, and hardest to counteract, more people are moving into the woods, or at least into the contact zones with National and State Parks and Forests and the holdings of big private timber companies (that some of these people have unfenced compost piles and leave their petfood on the porch over night adds to the effect). Third, and least popular to mention to certain segments of the population, bans on hunting bears, cougars, and bobcats with hounds and on fur trapping have removed the negative consequences of approaching people, and replaced them with a system which mostly removes the truly stupid from the population- bears and cougars which approach school yards in broad daylight, for instance. Of course the situation you mention- an injured animal looking for easy prey- is the reason for close contact in the two cases of animals killed for invading human space in my experience (setting aside the time my old boyfriend and I awoke to cougar tracks on the pick-up canopy, because we were way the heck up in the woods and left unhurt): a bear that had been hit by a car and was eventually shot raiding garbage cans in my neighborhood, and a big male cougar that walked into a friend's yard in broad daylight over by Priest Lake and was shot taking a leap at their tethered pony, which had been gut-shot with a .22, had a huge abdominal abcess, and weighed less than 75 pounds.
I really think that for anyone with wild predator exposure, fencing and landscaping mindful of predator access and cover is the only long-term solution.
*Please note that over the years we've lost more cattle, hogs, horses, and chickens to dogs and cats than to anything except a pair of horned owls that moved in and hunted out my Mom's banties. Individual dogs kill calves and drive stock through fences to be hit by cars, and come into the feeder pig pens and kill and eat pigs, dog packs kill cattle and horses dierectly or run them to death. So running dogs is not my solution to anything. They're just other predators which have the unfair advantage of human approval.
Actually on our side of the mtns hound hunting still goes on, especially on the reservation....but the friend whose ewe was killed he called in friends with dogs. And I agree with you...not condoning the running loose of dogs and we too have lost many pets and livestock to dog packs. Fido and spot are your freindly house dog and then people (they still do over here) let them out at night to "run" and they cause horrendous (must be my word of the day)damage. I have seen deer hamstrung and then the dogs maul them ...leave them and run off to pull down another deer...just to maul it and go on to the next. Nothing is ever eaten...they are not hungry...they have food at home. They are just running in packs. We had our first flock of birds annialated (sp) some 10 years ago by a pack of dogs. This included my DH's pet 75 lb turkey. We staked out the turkey carcass. When the dogs came back we shot them. They stood their ground and growled at the DH before he even pulled the trigger. Found out later they were causing lots of problems - attacked someone else's dog, ran a person back into their home when they let their "fido" out to go potty, etc. These were not ferral dogs, they had collars on. They were all in good health. We shot and killed 5 huskies. Mind you PLEASE!!!!!! I have dogs and love them. But if I shoot the owner for being STUPID I will go to jail. Usually I go and tell people, hey your dog is harrassing my livestock...never had chance to do this. Glad we killed them before they hurt a person...they were dangerous.
My BIL went out to run off two AKC registered microchipped Huskies that were running the bulls in their winter pen and ended up having to kill one of them with a spading fork as it went for his throat: show dogs, and allegedly obediance trained. Dogs are scary when they're in hunting mode.
I think there's three factors at work. One is that people aren't letting dogs run the way they used to*- until I was in my late twenties, opening the door in the morning and letting the dogs out to run loose was pretty much SOP for everyone, and it discouraged other predators from coming close to the house. Second, and hardest to counteract, more people are moving into the woods, or at least into the contact zones with National and State Parks and Forests and the holdings of big private timber companies (that some of these people have unfenced compost piles and leave their petfood on the porch over night adds to the effect). Third, and least popular to mention to certain segments of the population, bans on hunting bears, cougars, and bobcats with hounds and on fur trapping have removed the negative consequences of approaching people, and replaced them with a system which mostly removes the truly stupid from the population- bears and cougars which approach school yards in broad daylight, for instance. Of course the situation you mention- an injured animal looking for easy prey- is the reason for close contact in the two cases of animals killed for invading human space in my experience (setting aside the time my old boyfriend and I awoke to cougar tracks on the pick-up canopy, because we were way the heck up in the woods and left unhurt): a bear that had been hit by a car and was eventually shot raiding garbage cans in my neighborhood, and a big male cougar that walked into a friend's yard in broad daylight over by Priest Lake and was shot taking a leap at their tethered pony, which had been gut-shot with a .22, had a huge abdominal abcess, and weighed less than 75 pounds.
I really think that for anyone with wild predator exposure, fencing and landscaping mindful of predator access and cover is the only long-term solution.
*Please note that over the years we've lost more cattle, hogs, horses, and chickens to dogs and cats than to anything except a pair of horned owls that moved in and hunted out my Mom's banties. Individual dogs kill calves and drive stock through fences to be hit by cars, and come into the feeder pig pens and kill and eat pigs, dog packs kill cattle and horses dierectly or run them to death. So running dogs is not my solution to anything. They're just other predators which have the unfair advantage of human approval.
Actually on our side of the mtns hound hunting still goes on, especially on the reservation....but the friend whose ewe was killed he called in friends with dogs. And I agree with you...not condoning the running loose of dogs and we too have lost many pets and livestock to dog packs. Fido and spot are your freindly house dog and then people (they still do over here) let them out at night to "run" and they cause horrendous (must be my word of the day)damage. I have seen deer hamstrung and then the dogs maul them ...leave them and run off to pull down another deer...just to maul it and go on to the next. Nothing is ever eaten...they are not hungry...they have food at home. They are just running in packs. We had our first flock of birds annialated (sp) some 10 years ago by a pack of dogs. This included my DH's pet 75 lb turkey. We staked out the turkey carcass. When the dogs came back we shot them. They stood their ground and growled at the DH before he even pulled the trigger. Found out later they were causing lots of problems - attacked someone else's dog, ran a person back into their home when they let their "fido" out to go potty, etc. These were not ferral dogs, they had collars on. They were all in good health. We shot and killed 5 huskies. Mind you PLEASE!!!!!! I have dogs and love them. But if I shoot the owner for being STUPID I will go to jail. Usually I go and tell people, hey your dog is harrassing my livestock...never had chance to do this. Glad we killed them before they hurt a person...they were dangerous.
My BIL went out to run off two AKC registered microchipped Huskies that were running the bulls in their winter pen and ended up having to kill one of them with a spading fork as it went for his throat: show dogs, and allegedly obediance trained. Dogs are scary when they're in hunting mode.
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