Animal Control Shot My Friend's Dog

Please don't use me as an example of not believing in shooting the dog. I believe I also said I don't have a problem with it.

I livetrap largely because I'm a lousy shot due to hand tremors, and there are too many houses in close to me anymore to make shooting safe. Trapping dogs is easy. There are times when shooting the dog *IN* the trap would be tempting, but I've got an iota of compassion for the dog & once it's caught, there's no real reason not to drop it off at the pound except for the time & gas. It's about 40 miles to the pound. I've found out recently that animal control will actually come and pick the dog up from me, but that means I've got to stick it somewhere where:

1. The owner isn't going to see or hear it until they get there -- I really don't relish a confrontation with some gun-toting redneck po'd that I caught his dog
2. My name is thereby recorded by animal control, meaning I could get an angry visit from the dog's owner for trapping it (some people are really not rational)
3. Where it can't get out and get after my livestock or damage my property while I'm gone.
4. Where it won't infect my dogs with whatever the crusty crud is that's going around in the loose dog population out here. Mange, I think.

Removing a large unhappy dog from a livetrap, incidently, is NOT easy.

Finally, the danger a large dog presents to livestock IS NOT OVERSTATED. GAD. And shooting dogs is one of the reasons they issue animal control officers guns. (The other is probably defending themselves from irate owners who need to get a flipping clue.)

I get SO SICK of people who think their sweet fidums won't be a problem if it runs loose. Dogs are predators. Period. End of story. I could tell an awful lot of bloody, gruesome, stories about dogs killing livestock. The danger is categorically NOT overstated. If anything, a lot of people with livestock underestimate it, then lose stock.

After awhile, you start getting fed up and start getting really practical about the problem.

I'm the biggest animal lover in the world. But I have a real, real, real low tolerance to loose dogs. Because they ARE a threat & I love my goats way more than I love sweet little fidums who's trying to get over the fence and kill them.

Leva

I'm sorry if I misrepresented you. I know you said that you didn't have a problem with the shooting, which I do, but when you said you were a softy I thought there was some common ground. I still think it sounds like you do the right thing personally, for whatever reason, and I respect that. It sounds like you put yourself at risk doing so (more from the rednecks than the dogs, the way I hear it), so I would even say that you have a lot more than "an iota" of compassion.

As for overestimating the risk, I only said that the risk to humans was overestimated, not the risk to livestock. I'm sure that very many dogs running loose who are perfectly sweet 100% of the time to their humans will exercise their prey drive on livestock and can cause tons of pain and destruction and economic loss. I know that 2 of my three dogs wouldn't hesitate to kill livestock if they ever got loose around any (I seriously believe the third one would starve to death, though), and if one of my dogs got shot with a mouth full of goat hide or chicken feathers, I'd feel terribly sad and guilty, but I also know I wouldn't be in any position to complain. I also said that if you see them posing an immediate danger to you or yours, I wouldn't disagree with you shooting them. If I had to choose between my animals dying or the loose dog, I'd pick the dog. I'd feel bad that it had to die, but I'd feel even worse if it killed my animal. But it doesn't sound like that was the situation here at all, and that's why I very much disagree with the shooting.

Anyway, I've more than said my piece--I just wanted to express support for the original poster and give a hopefully helpful suggestion. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter what I happen to think about the issue and I'll stay out of it from now on unless someone has something specific to say to me.

Good luck to you and your friends cchapman.

__________________
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.. They shall not hurt nor destroy In all my holy mountain For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.