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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 04 2007 : 7:59:53 PM
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I don't know if it was the weather or what, but I saw 4 feral dogs running around my property & the neighbor's cow pasture today. One came into the yard - a skinny, bedraggled Rottweiller - and when I went to yell at him, he took off down the hill toward my chicken house. I ran to load the shotgun & went running after him, fearing he was eating my chickens, but he'd only eaten half a watermelon that had been in the barn for the chickens (who were hiding in a semi-safe hidden corner). The dog ran into a brushy drainage where I couldn't see him, so I shot the gun to scare him off, and he took off across the field & over to the neighbor's.
It's very strange for me to be in this position - I've always been the kind of person who tries to help animals, and this dog was obviously starving to death. But, I have to think of my kids, as well as my cats & dogs and the wildlife here. Dogs become very dangerous under these circumstances because they're hungry & fairly fearless of humans, plus the pack mentality thing. So now I feel like I have to take the offensive against these poor strays. The one shelter around here wouldn't be able to adopt them out (even if I could catch them), and I'm in no position to start a dog rescue farm, so shooting becomes the practical - and the humane - option. But I'm not sure I can do it, especially with the thought of wounding one. Could you?
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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blueberries in alaska
outstepping
109 Posts
Jo
hillsides of the Chugach
AK
USA
109 Posts |
Posted - Sep 05 2007 : 09:55:55 AM
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Jen, I love dogs, I really do. I've really lost my patience with people letting their animals running loose. Our close neighbors trap and take dogs to the pound, where they are dealt with. They are dangerous to your children and livestock. What about vaccinations? People that allow their animals to roam probably do not vaccinate against rabies or other diseases so put children and unvaccinated animals at risk. Rabies is actually a wildlife issue up here.
I wouldn't kill the fat lab that comes and poops our yard every day, but I might shoot the dog that has growled at me in my own driveway or harrasses my labs. There's a place called Halibut Cove we visit where you are told when you arrive that if your dog kills a chiken it will be shot immediately. It provides food and your dog does not!
It's distressing to me..... people have such little common sense anymore. jo
there's no place like home....
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feral dogs
