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Neighbors ate my pig.

6K views 41 replies 23 participants last post by  LuckyGRanch 
#1 ·
My pig escaped her pasture the other night. I couldn't catch her so I just let her lay under my fathers house untill he got home.(she loved him)
I went out an hour later to check on her but she was gone. I looked around a bit but it was getting too dark. I heard the nieghbors dogs barking like crazy and I tried to see over there but couldn't. I had a feeling the pig was over there. They've got 5 small to medium size dogs and my pig was pretty big (75lbs?). So i figured if it was her making them bark she'd be o.k. But she never did come back and that morning dad went looking everywhere and saw no trace.
Today one of my Huskey comes home draggin her head. It was clearly butcherd off. I think my nieghbor has my pig in his freezer. It makes me mad but....
Should I ask for it?
 
#2 ·
You could ask for it back...but consider this, it could be accompanied with a multi-hundred dollar bill for laying waste to their gardens or flower beds.

If it were me, I'd chalk it up to experience and resolve to spend more time building up my fences.

I think I'd also be worring whether or not the neighbors like to eat Husky dogs, sounds like you have a problem there too.
 
#3 ·
bare said:
You could ask for it back...but consider this, it could be accompanied with a multi-hundred dollar bill for laying waste to their gardens or flower beds.

If it were me, I'd chalk it up to experience and resolve to spend more time building up my fences.

I think I'd also be worring whether or not the neighbors like to eat Husky dogs, sounds like you have a problem there too.

They just have a bone yard, no garden. And I dont know that my pig was even on their property since we have a large pasture across from them that their dogs like to play in.(They used to come into the barnyard and chase our chickens till I chased them off with vinigar in a water gun) The dogs could have attacked her there and she would have ran to the road. My dogs have never been on their property because of all their dogs,(I've never seen them off our land, we've got plenty) so I think he found it in our pasture/ditch/road/woods drug up by their dogs. Another reason I doubt she went into their yard is because those dogs are outside dogs that are always at the edge of their property.(unless their in my pasture) They dont have alot of open space.
We've spent alot of time and money on the pigs fencing. This is our first and last pig. Must need solid walls or something.
I wouldn't start a fight with the nieghbor just would like to get a share of the meat.I'm mad about losing an amimal but..I know it's our own fault and and maybe he didn't know it was ours.
 
#4 ·
I DO understand... Livestock just get out sometimes, despite our best efforts. I've done my share of chasing hogs that got through one of my famous impenetrable fences.

At the same time I fully understand the frustration with neighbors that put up with other critters intrusions. I've lost a heck of a lot more livestock and garden produce to domestic critters than I ever have to wild predators.
 
#7 ·
I found the end half of my pig. Cut off to the back legs laying on its back. I didn't turn it over. Part of her spine was sticking out. Her skin was cut down to the butthole and intrales coming out. Her butt looks partly eaten so that the intestines can be seen. Her middle is still missing.
She was laying in a trench in some tall grass(on my property) next to my hay field. There where some odd trails in the grass. Looks like someong or thing put her there.

So I developed another theory. I underestimated those dogs and they DID kill my pig on my property-perhaps in my hay field that they seem to think they own since they like to run over and bark at us when we walk there. SO if she died in my hayfield she may have been chopped to peices by the hay cutters equipment. (she does looked chopped not really torn) then someone threw her peices out of the way.
So my pig was killed on my property though not contained by a fence. What say you now?? What you you do??
Anybody have an idea??
 
#8 ·
Chalk it up to experience. Sounds like to me the way you found her....doggies and other various critters have been having a buffet at your expense. Literally Lord only knows what exactly killed her.....maybe your dogs helped out the neighbors' dogs. One never knows. Amazing what dogs & other wild critters can do tearing up/apart a hog. It'd proably be best if you just forgive & forget about it & remember it if there is a next time. Neighbor wars can get ugly....just my 2 cents worth......
 
#11 ·
Stand_Watie said:
You shoot the dogs the next time they are on your property, dig a plenty deep grave and don't discuss it with anybody.
You know... I think this might be a pretty good suggestion. Won't dogs that will take down a pig attack other livestock, and possibly a child as well? Which rather begs the question of why these dogs were roaming the neighborhood in the first place...

SSS
 
#13 ·
Being from Kentucky originally, I do remember one feud in particular that started over a pig; the Hatfields and McCoys.

Forget the pig but remember; "Dead dogs wag no tails."
 
#14 ·
Torade, Are you sure that it was the dogs that killed the pig and not the haying equipt.? A 75lb pig would be a pretty tough critter for small to medium sized dogs to bring down and I imagine that the racket made during their attempt should have been loud enough for someone to hear it.
 
#15 ·
The simple fact is you don't know who or what killed your pig so I would chalk it up to experience and go on. Circumstantial evidence may point at your neighbors dogs but it may just as well have been your own dogs or a wild animal or the hay cutter or she could have been hit by a car and killed and then dragged there. There's just no telling. But ultimately her death is your responsibility because she escaped and you didn't round her back up. If she was killed in her pen and you saw the dogs attack her it would be different. You'd have a clear case to shoot the dogs. But as things stand now I would let it go.
Patt
 
#16 ·
Well I would chalk it up to experience too, and you can't be certain what killed a 75 pound pig. None of my dogs would stand a chance for sure. Uncle Will has it right, get your fences right make the neighbor get his right. Shoot or pen all marauding dogs, yours or theirs.
 
#17 ·
I thought about fencing the hay field but I'd need a mighty big gate to allow the hay equipment in.
Also Im thinking when I get horses and want to ride down the road these dogs are going to chase my horse. I need to relearn how to use a bullwhip. These dogs also chase my car whenever I come and go. They're pretty dang good at avoiding my wheels but sometimes it looks like a close call.
 
#18 ·
Eh, live and learn. You already knew that raising a single pig unless it's intended as a pet is not a good idea.

Pigs are intelligent animals and need stimulation to keep from being bored, either from other pigs company or toys. They also gain weight faster because of the competition going on for food.

I'd still re-visit your ideas on letting your own dogs run free though. I sincerely doubt that they stay on your own property exclusively, especially huskies. They have a roving instinct much more than a teritorrial instinct. Just 'cause you've never seen them off your property is no guarantee that they don't.
 
#19 ·
bare said:
Eh, live and learn. You already knew that raising a single pig unless it's intended as a pet is not a good idea.

Pigs are intelligent animals and need stimulation to keep from being bored, either from other pigs company or toys. They also gain weight faster because of the competition going on for food.

I'd still re-visit your ideas on letting your own dogs run free though. I sincerely doubt that they stay on your own property exclusively, especially huskies. They have a roving instinct much more than a teritorrial instinct. Just 'cause you've never seen them off your property is no guarantee that they don't.
No I need them to protect the property at night from the people who like to drive in here in the middle of the night. They also drive off wild animals.
I'm home all day and know that my dogs stay on the property. I am always going outside during the day and always see them in their same spot. I'm on the end of a dirt road and the only way out is through the thick wood or down the road past the dogs who my dogs do very much hate. The husky was abandond out in the country in the winter time and was near death, feet and tail swollen and bleeding, when I found him. Maybe thats why he sticks to this place like glue.
I think farmers have had dogs that stayed close to the property and livestock for centurys. Not ALL dogs wonder or go on killing sprees.
 
#20 ·
Nope, yer right, not all dogs wander, and I'm not picking a fight with you. I just get tired of MY neighbors who are totally in denial. Every time I've had to ask them to contain their critters, they tell me their dogs don't ever leave their place.

The last episode I had a deer hanging in an outbuilding that the neighbors dog tore up and drug through the snow to his place. THAT time there was evidence. I still had to shoot the dang thing, which is never something I like to do, just because someone wouldn't deal with their own problems.

It's been my experience that a contained or restrained dog is just as much a deterrent as a loose dog when it comes to predation or uninvited company.
 
G
#22 ·
i would also forget about it. if you let yourself get caught up in the revenge mode it will just distract you from better use of time and effort like preventing any further occurances. it never ends and each incidence is simply an escalation of nastiness. i do agree turnabout is fair play and would not hesitate to permanately retire any stray animals that wandered onto your place. Dogs that run loose are just as much trouble to country folk as city folk.
 
#26 ·
There is a device you can get that will discourage neighbor dogs from barking at you when you are walking on your own property. I'm trying to remember what it's called, as I don't have one (yet -- we have a similar problem with neighbor dogs who think our land is theirs). You aim it at the dog, and I think it makes a noise only they can hear. I've heard from goat packers that it works really well on the trail when their goats are threatened by unleashed dogs.

Kathleen in Oregon
 
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