dog killed my chickens

[centrarchid]

Granted it stinks when a neighbors dog kills your birds...
...and the neighbor should keep their dog confined according to local laws.
BUT
It's also your responsibility to keep your birds safe by keeping them within a secure fence.

This is the better long-term approach. Law enforcement and neighbor sentiments will be reactionary only in most instances. You will also have other dogs and wild predators eventually as well. Make certain those chickens are staying on your property, if not this discussion is a waste of time.


SSS is already not good option because of unpleasant discussions. You will be suspected and very likely treated harshly.


You need to get past this as not a good start as a forum topic.

 

[Cherib603]

I agree with EVERYTHING

 

[carlf]

Do not kill the dog yourself, you open yourself up to charges. Keep it legal.
The dog came onto your property and killed your livestock. Did you file a police report each time? If not, why not?????
You MUST officially document that this is a livestock killing dog.
Ask the local police or animal control to have the dog put down, put that request in writing. Copy the local District Attorney.
No bones about it, this is a legal matter.
Treat it like one.

That said, you need to fence in your birds. Cause if his dog didn't grab them, something else would have.
While he has a duty to control his dog, you have a responsibility to your birds to protect them. You should have taken this step after the first dead bird.

 

[kajira]

Do not kill the dog yourself, you open yourself up to charges. Keep it legal.
The dog came onto your property and killed your livestock. Did you file a police report each time? If not, why not?????
You MUST officially document that this is a livestock killing dog.
Ask the local police or animal control to have the dog put down, put that request in writing. Copy the local District Attorney.
No bones about it, this is a legal matter.
Treat it like one.

That said, you need to fence in your birds. Cause if his dog didn't grab them, something else would have.
While he has a duty to control his dog, you have a responsibility to your birds to protect them. You should have taken this step after the first dead bird.

Every place I've had farm/livestock, the local law enforcement has told us if animals are going after ours, to just shoot them. IF it's on our property, we have a right to protect our animals.

If you shoot a dog going after your animals on your property, usually, the owners who let the dog loose gets a fine here and often have to pay for any animals it killed in the process too.

But, in Texas, if a human steals, or kills someone else's live stock, the jail time could be worse/longer than murdering another human almost. LOL It's serious business here, if animals go after live stock.

 

[Howard E]

There is the legal option (shooting a neighbors dog), yes legal, but a really bad choice, as is calling animal control. Even if they are in the wrong, jerks won't admit it. With jerks, their bad actions is always rationalized as another's fault. So it becomes your fault their dog was on your place causing trouble. Better to shoot the jerk, but that only works in Skidmore, MO.

Solution is an electric fence. A really hot electric fence is the silent sentinel that will send the dog running home, never to return. Neighbor can't complain.......and probably will never know about it anyway. But the dog will. Done right, the dog will refuse to come near your place. Even the most hard headed of them are smarter than their owners if they are the one taking the hit.

 

[Millworker26]

One day I was following this well polished lady in a very expensive SUV. She was swerving all over the road, running other motorists off the road, and at one point she ran the side of her car against the guardrail. This occurred multiple times over many miles. I called 911 and after the police pulled her over they took our stories. The cop told me she wasn't drunk & her sob story was that was reaching down to pick something up (bullsh#t). The cop seemed to believe her at which point I played him the video of the entire thing. You could visually see his face and opinion change, realizing he had been lied to.

Do as somebody else suggested and get it on video. Then you won't have to deal the you-said they-said bs.

 

[ladynewtochicks]

All depends on the laws where you live really... Here without a doubt that dog would not have stepped foot off my property the second time. Here it is your responsibility to in control of your dog at all time and any animal attacking livestock is shootable unless it's an eagle or a grizzly etc. it is also your right to be able to run your own animals on your property without fear for their lives by a neighbors dog, who's owners know and don't care. I live out of town, so animal control doesn't even exist here.

I would call the sherif and notify the owners at the fist event. After that they knowingly sent their dog to his grave by allowing it to go after my livestock the second time... The end but that's just me...

 

[centrarchid]

Point I made earlier needs to be addressed before too much effort invested in shooting dog. Where the chickens on the chicken owners property? Best I can infer from OP's post is that multiple neighbors are present and that chickens are free-range kept. I am betting OP's yard is only a couple acres in size. It is very difficult to keep free-range birds that already have ability to roost in trees to stay on such a small parcel. If the attack occurs on any property other than the OP's unless some agreement is made with a property owner the birds are on leaves very limited options for responding to dog's activities in a legal manner.

Reason for Edit: I do not know where I got the roosting in tree part. Took half hour to generate posting owing to distractions.

 

[bobbi-j]

As Aart, Centrarchid and Carlf have said - your first responsibility is to make a safe place for your chickens. If a neighbor's dog can get them, so can a fox, coyote, hawk or any other critter. You need to fence your yard, put up electric wire or build them a secure run. At this point, I don't think killing the dog is an option. I'd be concerned about retaliation. SSS could be an option if one didn't have neighbors close enough to see or hear, and owners hadn't already been confronted.

@kajira - not everyone lives in a place where they can just up and shoot their predators. Not every place is safe to discharge a firearm. Like in a residential area.

@ladynewtochicks - while it is our RIGHT to keep our chickens free range if we want, it is also our RESPONSIBILITY to keep them safe. If I knew I had a dog next door (or living near me) that was killing my chickens, they would be in a run until the problem was resolved.

 

[ladynewtochicks]

@ladynewtochicks - while it is our RIGHT to keep our chickens free range if we want, it is also our RESPONSIBILITY to keep them safe. If I knew I had a dog next door (or living near me) that was killing my chickens, they would be in a run until the problem was resolved.[/quote]

My point was that it depends on where you live what you can/should do.

Here as long as as the chickens were on her property as she stated they were in her yard. Then she would be perfectly within her rights to shoot the dog.
Aggressive dogs should be contained appropriately or destroyed in my opinion. and here they would be breaking several laws by letting that dog run free.

Maybe I am just bitter because I have had several dogs come at me on my own property or come at my dogs and I'm just sick of people not having their dogs under any sort of control at all. Keep in mind I have 3 dogs so it's not like I'm a dog hater...