What to do when you can't shoot dogs?

It seems to me that many people have veered away from discussing the actual problem and limitations suffered by the OP and are now discussing the philosophical quality of a proper attitude toward animal life.

The OP is in danger, her child is in danger, and her livestock HAVE BEEN KILLED.

She has few resources to deal with the matter.

So, given that situation, perhaps it would be helpful if we stuck to the topic at hand.

Just sayin'.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

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[QUOTE=timfromohio;4682969]How about wasp spray? I read an article that recommended it as a self-defense tool and it would have much better range than conventional pepper spray.

QUOTE]

Wasp spray is great because the can is designed to have a long stream of spray. You don't have to get too close that way.

There are large size traps for dogs on line.

Have you tried turning her into social services as a whack job that might just need institutional housing? How about codes and compliances? Maybe her house is not liveable???

I had a nut case that lived across the street from me and the police couldn't ever catch him in the act. I found out that I could take out a civil complaint against him so I did and I supoened everyone who had ever told me they'd had problems with him (that way they had to show up). We filled the courtroom. He moved.

They make fake security cameras (so they are cheap). On a day when she is home could you make a big deal about putting some up? Make sure some point at her house.

Good luck, my heart goes out to you. You are in an icky situation. So sorry

In my county the dog catcher has a live trap, for dogs. They will come out and trap the dog and take it away. Probably would come pretty quickly if a child was in danger.

This would be a pretty good and cheap fix.

Contact the local media about the dogs going for the baby and the local law enforcement and animal control doing nothing about it.

It might be a good idea to have your husband dig a hole or two for you in case you need them while he is gone. I have physical limitations and can't dig a hole right now either. I could probably fill one up on my own though.

ok I WAS WRONG after reading a few of you alls posts and a few links some of you all sent i was wrong to suggest anti freeze and after reading up i feel bad about it. so please ignore my last coment. i think it would be best just to shoot shovel and shhhhhh up. Im sorry for you situation i will ask a friend who works with the humane society see if he has some advice. And thanks to you all who helped educate me.

Other than taking the 12gauge and putting the offending dog down, I'd say call your dog warden and have the animal picked up.....
Any dog running loose can be picked up by the dog warden, tagged or not.
But personally, I'd just shoot the dog with the 12 gauge and probably throw the body to the hogs.
Greg Zeigler
Alger, Ohio

I want to thank everyone for their ideas. I know this is a sensitive subject and I don’t want to cause hard feelings between people. I have literally been in tears about this all day because even having to consider poison upsets me so much. Poison is not a clean kill so I do have serious ethical issues with it. The last thing I want is to hurt these dogs but I have seen what dogs can do to livestock and the suffering the injured animals go through. So when I consider doing something that bothers me this much it is only because I feel so trapped. Since they went after the baby I have been waking up with nightmares about my little girl all torn and bleeding. Believe me I get that this is really more about the owner than the dogs. She is very contemptuous of southerners, farmers, makes comments about “dumb rednecks” and feels that since she was here first she has more rights because her dogs are “used to coming in the yard”. To me the dogs are victims of her stupidity.

I really would rather shoot the dogs if I have to kill them but the shot is too much of a risk. I am in a back brace and have trouble turning my head at the moment so I can't shoot worth anything at the moment. Unless I have the baby with me they run if I come off the back deck so I would have to shoot from an angle that would put houses into my line of fire. If I missed I could injure my neighbors or their children. Being 99% sure you can make the shot isn’t good enough if you are putting kids at risk. If I go into the yard itself there are good shots I could take them from and I do wear my pistol but as soon as they see me they run. The only time I can get close enough to get them from the ground is when I have the baby and then all 4 of them rush towards her barking & growling so that is a no go. Even if I could shoot all of them in time to prevent actual harm to my little girl I just don’t think it would be good for her to be used as bait. I am going to buy a baby doll that makes crying sounds and try using it to see if will attract them the same way.

My husband could easily make the shot from the house but she only lets them out when she knows I am alone. If hubby’s truck is in the driveway she keeps them in the house. Ditto, with my son’s motorcycle before he left for basic training last week. Because of the back injury / brace I can’t turn my neck well enough to drive or I would take the truck out to trick her but that won’t work at the moment either.

I would love to put up a fence and be done with it but my insurance ended in the middle of a very difficult pregnancy and I owe a huge amount of money to multiple doctors. I priced the cost of fencing and by the time I accounted for multiple solar chargers etc. it would be way beyond my means at the moment. I am supposed to be doing physical therapy 3 times a week right now but can only afford once a week so as much as I would like to take what would be the easiest and best solution I just can’t do it.

I did get back in touch with the authorities this afternoon and will be trying a trap but they told me not to expect much to come of it because when a dog is fixated on an animal they usually ignore the bait. Maybe I can put the crying baby doll in the trap as bait – it seems a really sick thing to do (symbolically at least) but it would be better than my current alternatives. I am also trying to get the prosecutor on the phone so I can take her back to court but she seems to have mental issues so I don’t know how much she cares what a judge says. Right now due to budget cuts we are really short of people to enforce these things so I’m not sure how much help I will get. Still I have found out there is not a way to legally use poison in this situation so I am trapped from that direction too because I don’t want to risk breaking the law either.

A friend suggested that if nothing else works I should just wait until the pigs are bigger and then make it possible for the dogs to get in the pen.

Sometimes it just seems that there is no right answer.

Went through a similar situation with an aggressive dog once.

All I can say is a bow will not make any noise and take care of the problem.

Since you are concerned with the other neighbors and their kids is there a chance the dogs are causing a problem for them? Would any of them be willing to help you out?

Get one of those crying toy baby dolls and put that in the stroller. This way you can draw them in close to get them on video followed by a good, clean shot without putting your child in danger.

I could use a vacation with some target shooting. I have several sized rifles (.22LR to .308 scoped) a shotgun. several handguns, a compound bow and plenty of arrows. Last time I drove through SW VA, I thought it looked like someplace nice to spend a week.

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Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. -Will Rogers

I don't know if your neighbor is mentally ill or not but she sounds a lot like mine, causing problems when my husband and son weren't home. She is a bully. The only thing that stops bullies is if their victim fights back to win or if a group stands up to them. It's just like Jr. High.
It's strange how many horrible neighbor stories on this board are women.

"Since you are concerned with the other neighbors and their kids is there a chance the dogs are causing a problem for them? Would any of them be willing to help you out? "


There are quite a few who would be glad to see the dogs gone but they don’t have livestock so I doubt they would risk it. There is no leash law but you can only shoot dogs to protect livestock.

Want a laugh? I can shoot the dogs for trying to kill a chicken but if I shoot them for going after my baby it is illegal in my county. How is that for weird?

You don't need a fence charger just a basic tightly strung hog wire fence will do fine with dogs of that size.

Do you have anyone close to you, friend or relative who can shoot them for you? Anyone with a camera? Using a baby doll would work fine for the video tape to show that they have the potential to attack a child.

I appreciate your desire to keep your neighbors safe, I think that is great! I also appreciate the fact that you don't want to poison an animal. So you will need to try one of the alternatives like filming the dogs and getting the video to the appropriate people.

I haven't read anybody else's posts, and I ain't going to. Anybody that thinks the dogs should be killed obviously hasn't handled complex problems before.

Not saying the dogs caretakers ain't at fault, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Use your brain.

I posted in the wrong place Oops

You are doing fine, Little Piggy.

Welcome to the forum! You will get every single possible different opinion lobbed at you here.
That is not necessarily a bad thing.

Good luck with your Dog Movie.

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Cows may not be smarter than People, but some cows are smarter than some people.

Gone a Milking, don’t worry I meant it literally. To get my temper under control from the post by familyman I went to another thread for a second and I accidently posted my response to it in this thread. I couldn’t erase it so I put the “posted in the wrong place” comment because the site won’t allow a blank post.

We can’t all agree and familyman is entitled to his opinion although I do wonder if he can form a valid opinion with so little data. I am at the end of my rope with this because all logical solutions have failed and I am afraid for my child. That is why I asked for help because I knew I needed fresh ideas. I have gotten some really good suggestions today and if one person wants to think I am an idiot it is a small price to pay for the fresh insight.

And on that note I am going to go to bed because I am still facing midnight feedings no matter what my neightbor’s dogs do.

Id like to point out that the lady attacked you before for simply threatening to do something.
Id think if you do anything other than a fence she would be a deadly threat to you.
Id do the fence
and something else VERY quietly.