When is it OK?

I know what to do when that neighbor kid comes back over acting a fool and destroying property...

first offense, dog will be rounded up if possible. exception is if it is really a aggressive dog then its the other option. no S S S it will be S and let the offending owner know,perhaps it will not need repeating.

second offense, dog will be rounded up and the pound called again.

third offense me and doggy go for a long ride three county's over where there is less country more suburban sprawl. and it goes to the pound there.

only other way it will play different is if I suffer damage then, the dogs got to hang around so I can collect on it.

option two is if its a decent dog and I decide to keep it.which would come into effect on second offense.

I'm against shooting a dog if it is avoidable.

Judges do not always see the side of the livestock owner. A coyote hound was shot on a guys property(he had goats) but he had no PROOF the dog was chasing/attacking his goats. The livestock owner had to pay a fine and restitution.

Same judge issued a fine and restitution to another coyote hunter because his dog was in a kid's yard and the kid shot it without checking it's collar or trying to run it off.

This happened in the same county(which is why it was the same judge) but be very careful about shooting a dog. Dogs can't read no trespassing signs and they sometimes get lost and roam. Doesn't make the owner bad or the dog bad.

I'm not saying it was okay for the dog to be around your goats-I'd be pretty upset as well. I'm just saying be cautious about shooting a dog that is loose. It does sound like they were strays though in that you had never seen them. Dogs can wander pretty far though...

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I don't even chase my whiskey, what makes you think I'm going to chase you?

I probubly shouldnt say this but I have a 9 yr old mastiff that was a chicken chaser from beyond when we first got her. You wouldnt think a bb gun would scare her into never chasing another chicken. Shes 160 lbs. I only had to shoot her 2 times and she got the point. Now if she looks at the chickens wrong all i do is shake the bb can and she lays down and doesnt even think about it. WE lived in the country before and we have put down a few of our own dogs for killing livestock. We had a ratt terrier mix that wasnt even a year old. TIny thing dug a hole under the chicken coop got in and slaughtered almost all the chickens. She was no longer a part of the family cause when my husband went to get her out of the coop she bit him and drew blood. There are too many good dogs out there that need homes to put up with livestock killing biting dogs.
I say if a stray was on my property harrassing my livestock or anything else growling etc. I would shoot it and burry it. If I knew whos dog it was I woudl confront them the forst time and tell them what their dog was doing and tell them if it happened again I would take care of it myself.

Check with your state laws.....I remember having to look this up when we killed a dog that was tearing up our ducks. In Kentucky, unless its changed, it was a couple "tiered" system, so to speak.

For small livestock like ducks & chickens, etc...the dog was supposed to be attacking the small critters for you to shoot it.

For the larger livestock, and people, the requirement was threatening, chasing, that sort of thing. The theory with the larger livestock of course would be if the dog chased it through/over a fence, there would be a higher risk of someone hitting it with a vehicle if it was out on the roadway....and the people being hurt.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons...for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!

i was assuming they were strays..

we have had packs of strays here that run not only attacking other animals but also people..I remember one really sad story in the up where a girl got off of a bus and wild dogs attacked her before she could get to her house, dragged her away and killed her..that has been many years ago but in MIchigan packs of wild dogs are not uncommon.

peoople take their dogs out in the woods and dump them, or across the county line, or even hunting dogs run off and are never recovered, they join each other in packs and are very very very dangerous..

we have had to put down more than our share..if they are tame and obtainable we will turn them over to animal control.

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

If a stray dog is in my yard, I will politely chase it away.

If they breach my electric fence, which is dog resistant and are in the pasture, with the sheep and hens, the outcome for the dog will be much different.

I agree, some of the responses have been...... strange. Some seem to be exuberant over the prospect of shooting a dog.

Dogs wonder onto my property all the time, I have never sustained any loss or felt threatened personally. I know where a couple of them come from and I sometimes put them in my truck and drive them back home....some are beagles, they like to wonder. No big deal.

I do suspect that there are those who just relish the idea of shooting something, it gives them tingles up their leg. And they'll take any excuse to do it.

There are a great many loose dogs in my immediate neighborhood. Thankfully, almost all of them stay home. Once in a great while the neighbors two bird dogs will get loose and come over to check out all the animal smells, etc. They are easy to shoo home. Most of us know where specific dogs belong, which helps a bunch when there are problems.

I have a feeling that "loose dogs" is going to be a growing problem all across the US. Just think about the price of dog food. Folks are going to be dropping them off to fend for themselves more and more. Very sad and not the dogs' fault.

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It seems that my problem is my neighbour entices my dog with improperly kept garbage. Dogs are very lazy and go for the easy meal first and have a great sense of smell. Watch them sniffing the wind. They can run right to a meal, even a live one. Don't ask lunch. It will be smelling and looking like poo by sunnset.

I am assuming these were strays, like others have said here so many wooded areas, farm's, farming land, etc. that folks that no longer want their dogs or can't keep them for what ever reason drop them off.

Over the years we've lived here we've have had dogs wander onto our property & kept them up to a week before, putting up signs, etc. to find the owners. They never harmed our 2 dogs, livestock or so much as growled at us. One was a husky & one was a springer.

This was the first time we had dogs here that were actually trying to get our animals & growled at us & the one came at my husband. No collars or tags. There are not alot of houses around here & most folks have seen or know what dogs the neighbors have in their immediate area.

If my dogs were loose somewhere I'd be out driving around these country roads looking for them & calling them. Never seen anyone around looking for them. Thank goodness we are not gone very often becuase I don't know what would have been dead when I came home.

We don't relish the idea of killing things just to kill things but sometimes I think it just has to be done to take care of a bad situation.

I understand their are alot of folks that wouldn't shoot a dog no matter what the animal did but we all have to make our own decisions as to what's right for that situation at the time I guess.
We love dogs, have a Beagle & a Jack Russell & I keep an eye on them so they don't run off while there outside although I'm sure it could happen.

I also know that if my dogs went to someone else's property & were damamging or killing their livestock or property that around here they may not come home. So I do not let them leave my property without a leash.


There are folks that coyote hunt around here, & their dogs have tracking collars on, real nice guys, take good care of their dogs. They have wandered on our property & no problems, their mission is coyotes.
There's a difference in trained hunting dogs & dogs that are loved & cared for & dogs that have been turned out & have to hunt their own food. Most of the time I think you can tell the difference.

Katie, dad has had trouble with this over the years. He has had neioghtbors call the cops on him for shootiing their dogs when they run his cattle. THe cops told him and the neighbors that the farm animals have priority.

You might ask your local sherriff to be sure.

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Check with your County Sheriff on the laws relating to this. A few years ago when I was coming up the driveway I saw the neighbor's 2 Rottweilers and 1 Lab cross running from the area of my poultry pens with feathers stuck in their fur.

They had quite a little party and killed all my chickens,2 guineas,5 Peacocks, 2 mated pairs of Call Ducks and 4 Bourbon Red turkeys that were just about ready to butcher. I went over and talked to the neighbor and he admitted letting the dogs out and had heard the noise from the killing but he thought that "dog's will just do things like that". They had no fence around their yard and let the dogs out of the house to run and weren't willing to change anything since the dogs were his wife's "babies".

I was pretty steamed by this point so I went and talked to the Baxter County Sheriff and he said the law (here anyway) regarding dogs attacking livestock was clear. I had the right to shoot dogs that came onto my land and harmed my animals AND I had the right to compensation from the dogs owners for everything they killed.

He had me write out a list of animals killed and the value (175 bucks) and told me to take the list along with a note he wrote explaining the destructive dog law to the neighbor and that he had 14 days to pay me for the damages.

The guy paid me and wound up building a fence around his yard and I've had no trouble from his dogs since and I've kept a Great Pyrenees on the place too.

Good luck to you and I hope everything turns out okay.

If you've been there 7 yrs and have never seen these dogs, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot first and ask later. If they are threatening your animals, you need to bring the gun out when you leave the house. What if it had been a bobcat or the dogs were foaming or something? The dogs could've been just as big a threat to you and your hubby as they were to the goats or other critters...... We are in the habit of taking the gun whenever we go out @ dark. You are in the right and frankly, I wouldn't let the sheriff know. JMO however, Emily Post didn't write up any rules about it; we ask questions later.....

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$175 for all that seems pretty skinny. Just the peacocks here would cost you over $100 each.....

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No. I think you missed the part where I stated the right to protect myself and my property. Anything getting after my goats, calves, or growling at me, on my own property gets shot. I know the difference between a friendly dog that just somehow got onto my property, and one that is there to be a menace.

Maybe but that's about what I had paid for everything. The peacocks were actually pretty cheap because the people I bought them from were tired of listening to them. The Call ducks were the most expensive of any of the birds. Cool little things too.