What did this??? :(

[Sparrow]

Do you guys have bears?

 

[sweetie pie]

So sorry

 

[scrambled freud]

In the city? How did your neighbors feel about your birds? Why did you first ask if it could be humans?

 

[chicknmania]

That's so sad. I'd say fox. You really have to predator proof your enclosures, even in town. I hope you will try again eventually for the sake of your little boy. But wait for a few weeks, to discourage whatever did it the first time from coming back.

 

[Ali707]

Holy cow. I didn't think anything could break apart the hardware cloth like they did in the first picture. Either there was a flaw in the hardware cloth or it was cut. I would almost say a person did this because of the way it is bent back and rather "clean". Can you inspect the edges of the cloth and see if it looks like it was crimped when the wire is cut or if it was pulled apart?

My local animal control guy did say that Raccoons will pull back and forth on hardware cloth in an effort to dislodge it or pull it loose, which could have happened on the other side of the run where it is pulled down, but the other side looks really suspicious to me.

Was the lock on top locked or hanging open like that? If it was a person and it was not locked they probably would have just gone through the top and not bothered with tearing up the hardware cloth.

I also would have said bear too, but you live in a city so unlikely.....

 

[superm0m]

In the city?  How did your neighbors feel about your birds?  Why did you first ask if it could be humans? 

 

I'm not really sure why I thought it could be a person...it just doesn't make sense to me that an animal could have done it. Once my husband removed the damaged hardware cloth, we did find a very small piece of what appears to be fur. So...I guess I will just assume it was a fox. :/

 

[LeciaBee]

If it was dogs there would be bodies. I'd say a fox. It's crazy that it tore through the hardware cloth so sorry

Actually a dog could have done it. We had a Siberian Husky that chewed right through our chicken wire and got our geese, turkeys and chickens. No blood or body parts anywhere. I was devastated, needless to say, she found a new home extremely fast... they say once a dog gets the taste of blood, they don't stop.

 

[plund]

All 4 of my girls are gone. I am heartbroken. My 2 year old keeps walking around asking for his chickens. We have only had them for a week. ONE WEEK!! I am beside myself right now. These pictures are what we woke up to this morning. There are feathers everywhere (but not as many as I would expect for 4 hens) but no carcasses and not a drop of blood anywhere. Could this be the work of a human??

I am so very sorry. We would be devasted if we lost our girls.

 

[LakesideCA]

Looking at that first picture. The wire looks cut to me. Any one living around you not like your chickens?

 

[aart]

Actually a dog could have done it. We had a Siberian Husky that chewed right through our chicken wire and got our geese, turkeys and chickens. No blood or body parts anywhere. I was devastated, needless to say, she found a new home extremely fast... they say once a dog gets the taste of blood, they don't stop.

But this is hardware cloth, much stronger than chicken wire, and for the most part thought to be impenetrable to predators.
That's why we are all really interested to find out how the hardware cloth got ripped like that.