Need some help (neighbors & dead animals), please, quick!

How bizarre!! I'd be really weirded out, particularly when it just keeled over and died. It must have been on its last legs to die like that, surely your chasing it a bit and whacking the fence didn't cause it to have a heart attack, it had to be pretty sick. Darn shame it croaked on your watch, its like something out of a National Lampoon movie, its just too weird. I'd drag the thing over to their place too, otherwise you'll be stuck with it. Good Luck!!!

Here he is, taken with my camera flash a little while ago. (What kind of breed is that, anyway? He *is* a sheep of some sort, right? Never seen a goat with curled-around horns like that, and he was penned with an ewe...) That is the bottom of his head/chin facing towards the camera, he fell with his head twisted back in a weird sort of way. Made DH think he broke his neck somehow, but I don't see how he could've kept running around with a broken neck.

Not sure about breed, I thought it was a goat........

He is haired though so no need for shearing. Since you mentioned his smell I would have still thought goat. None of my rams have ever had that strong male odor.


I have seen sheep with large worm loads get big bellies, plus malnourishment can do that to. (kids in feed the children ads always have pot bellies). The one sheep I saw die from parasite load had a short siezure before expiring and it did curl it's head back looking a lot like your guy there.

I don't know how long it takes for bloat to set in though..........

The first pic was taken less than an hour after he died, that's what his belly looked like alive, so it's not bloat.

The ewe he was penned with is definitely a wool sheep.

I googled pictures of rams, and he looks like some of the Barbado rams (a hair breed) so maybe he's part Barbado ram.

I saw him go down and I went to run back to the neighbor's house while DH stood near him, when I got back the ram was dead and DH said he jerked around a bit (while on the ground) right before he died.

Yes, he is a Barbado, so that explains why he hasn't been sheared in two years-they're hair sheep and shed naturally on their own. We had a large flock of them for several years and finally sold out about 9 months ago. The Barbadoes are supposedly more resistant to parasites, but we never found that to be the case. And they are WILD and very difficult to handle for things like deworming and vaccinating. We have found that cattle are by far the better species

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

while if you are in texas--is it hot there still? i'd get rid of him before he bloats and pops. i dont think i would wait for your neighbors to come. i think he looks like a goat.

farmergirl, the ewe is a wool breed and definitely has not been sheared in 2 years, she looks gross. She's been there 2 years and I've seen her every day of those 2 years and she hasn't been sheared.

It's in the high 70's, low 80's during the day here. He's gonna get nasty pretty quick. I've gotta do something about him. This is very bad timing, as the farrier is supposed to come at 8:00 tomorrow and after he leaves we need to skedaddle to meet a realtor in another town (80 miles away) to look at some homes. Like I have time to be dealing with other peoples' lack of responsibility!

We had one of those also. Wildest darn thing you ever met. Ended up shooting it because it constantly broke wooden gates.

AMEN to that thought!

GET RID OF IT NOW! UNDER THE COVER OF DARK

DH heard the coyotes being very vocal tonight when he got home, so I realized that I didn't want to attract them to my property with this dead carcass (because I have my own live goats and chickens here). We got out our yellow utility cart, put on long sleeves and gloves, and lifted him (grabbing only his horns and back legs) onto the cart. His eyes were bloody, I'm not sure if that occured before or after death (he did have ants crawling on him). I've seen dead critters around here before, possums and rabbits, but none of their eyes have looked like that. Gross. We laid him between their sheep pen and their driveway... and their car was in the driveway, so they were home and I can only assume they saw the note.

I'm just hoping they don't get angry at us and try to retaliate somehow (you never know how crazy people can be)... I don't think we should be in trouble for it, seeing as how it's THEIR responsibility to dispose of the carcass... we were just getting it off our property. I'm going to try to chain and lock my gates tomorrow when I go out of town.

It's still laying next to their driveway, they've done nothing with it.

He bent up my fence pretty good, we were able to get it bent back into shape. DH says we need to call the 16-year-old kid who helped us put up the fence, tell him that he did a really good job and that it held up against a 150-lb ram charging at it full-force...

I am shuddering thinking what his carcass is going to attract, and, err... are any diseases transmissable from sheep to goat?
Not to mention how bad that's going to reek before long. If it isn't gone soon, I'd be calling the powers that be and anonymously reporting the carcass. Gag.

Didn't see second page. Deleted post.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

He's still over there, between their driveway and sheep pen. Been dead for 27 hours. We drove past this morning and saw that the note I stuck on their door yesterday is gone.

Got in on this late, but - Whinnyninny, just wanted to tell you that I have heard of sheep crashing themselves into a fence until they died, at least 2 of them. And, they were those hair-sheep type. It was at a farm where they kept sheep to train herding dogs with, sometimes they would just panic and start crashing themselves into the fence, then finally collapse, just like you described. I don't want to start a debate about hair sheep vs. wool sheep, but after hearing those stories and observing the behavior of them, we chose to have wool sheep. Sorry you had to go through this.

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[COLOR="Blue"]Expect Little - That way you will be seldom disappointed.../COLOR]

Well, it's looking like you did the right thing, Whinny, by getting the animal out of your yard yourself! They never would have done it! I'm so sorry you have butt-heads for neighbors.

They are gonna regret just leaving him there when he gets to the point where he is gonna pop!

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Lori

It isn't your fault, now watch them try to sue you for dumping a dead animal on their land. But you have good proof he was on your land. Just go get some of him in their yard to be sure. They would loose if you have proof it is the same ram.
I would have left a note, if not answer after a day. I have about 60 pounds of dog food. DH would have loved me for making him dress out it.

Patty.

I'm gonna regret it too Lori, we need to sell our home, we're moving. We put an offer on a house in another town today and it was accepted, so we need to be putting our house on the market. I'm sure these neighbors having a rotting sheep's carcass in their yard is going to lower my property value.

We've been here 3 years and we've had no other problems with these neighbors except for their animals getting on our property occassionally (every couple months... most the time it's their dog, and will run off). Too bad we're having this icky problem now.

Honestly what I would have done is Shoot Shovel and Shutup. or in your case shovel and shutup, done deal no mad neighbors problem solved. Call animal control tell them there is a deal animal on the side of the road that stinks to high heaven and you want it gone. If they don't do anything toss a rope around it's head and tow it off into the woods.

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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards"

Oh wow, that does complicate things! It's hard to sell your place when it's sooooo obvious you have bad neighbors (much less a rotting animal in the yard)!

Maybe you could do like zukgod says... could you call animal control or call the sheriff back? The ram is going to turn into a stinky, health hazard where he is. Or is there somewhere you could drag it off to? Farther down the road, or maybe some vacant property?

If dragging the carcass off yourself becomes your only option, I would do it (soon) whether they are home or not. Take the hubby or someone with you and just drive in and drag it out. I would bet the neighbors would do no more than just peek thru the curtains and watch you do it because they don't want to deal with it.

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Lori