Advice needed: Dealing with feral & stray dogs

[Lloyd Smale]

what chance do you give to that dog being a friendly dog to strangers when hes getting shot in his own yard by people. these are the idiots that are causing these dogs to be aggressive. If you read his post it wasn't even the dog that attacked him it was the replacement for him. tone down the snark!! Its me that's got attacked for my opinion here more then anyone. Because my opinion doesn't agree with you or like I say I'm swimming against the tide I'm the bad guy here? I'm the problem when theres posters talking about gut shooting, poisoning and now torturing a dog that's done nothing in his own back yard!!!!!! I'm very proud to be swimming against this tide. My guess is some of you got beat up when you were kids and because your so weak taking it out on defenseless animals somehow in your warped minds makes you feel like a man. My guess is a REAL feral dog would cause you to stain your pants. By God I'm out of this one for sure this time. Nobody will bait me back. Just got a weird feeling that God was looking over my shoulder and shaking his head. At some of you for the total lack of respect you have for his creatures and the cruel way you treat them or if nothing else condone it, and for me because I'm wasting my time on bunch that aren't worth saving.

Perhaps if the owner had either trained or restrained his dog then Brassrat would not have had to do it for him. A bb gun isn't a toy, but on thick haired/ thick skinned animals it is unpleasant. A shock collar would be a viable and preferred alternative but would present you with some application difficulties if it wasn't your dog. Again... you might want to tone down the snark if you want to discuss. You've succeeded in alienating most of the respondents, including me, to the point that you seem to be swimming against the tide. I'm not trying to change your mind about how we deal with aggressive dogs... but I would like to see a more respectful exchange with the other posters. I'm through.

[M-Tecs]

Lloyd

Answer one question for me. If your dog chases a $30,000.00 horse into a fence and the horse is injured to the point that it is useless are you going to pay the owner the $30,000 loss they have incurred because of your dog?

[skeettx]

BANG, SHHH, Dig, SHHH, Smile, SHHH

A proper spaying program is our friend.
Save the animals from over-population.

[sghart3578]

Lloyd

Answer one question for me. If your dog chases a $30,000.00 dollar horse into a fence and the horse is injured to the point that it is useless are you going to pay the owner the $30,000 loss they have incurred because of your dog?

That's a great question. And that issue is exactly what is driving our county ordinances here. The rich people buy a 5 acre "mini ranch" in the foothills here. They then buy some very expensive horses. And not necessarily English riders either. I pass by a ranch house several days a week. I have spoken to the owner on numerous occasions. He and his wife are retirees from the Bay Area/Silicon Valley scene.

He is not a rider but he indulged his wife with 4 very expensive western horses, two cutting horses and two reined cow horses. Cost? $25,000 each.

Now, how do you think he will react when the tweaker down the road who lives in his Mom's garage lets his pitbulls run wild and they maim one of his wife's horses? It happens around here regularly so the roads in this county are posted with warning signs that loose dogs will be shot.

Is it fair to the dog? Absolutely not. Is there a better answer? No, not when the dogs have no tags or collars and animal control won't respond unless a human is attacked. And if you could round up the dog and find the owner they will never admit to owning it.

It is the great conundrum of life. The ones that are the least responsible for their situation seem to pay the highest price, whether we are talking about animals or children.

[M-Tecs]

sghart3578 Normally I don't quote myself but since it happened in the late 70's in this case I will quote myself. This is from post 98.

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When I was still living in my home town area I owned and helped train one of my colts into a superb barrel racing horse. I had a hand shake agreement to sell this horse for the an amount the was equal to two brand new pickups. That was until I got a call that some dogs were in our pasture chasing the horses. They were still they when I got there. They had ran my barrel horse into the fence. After I saw the damage they had done I shot two with the 243 hoping for collars but no luck. My barrel horse had cut its shoulders and legs so badly it was never able to race so the deal was off.

The dogs came from about two miles away. A lady had move in from the big city and she had 30 to 40 dogs that she was feeding outside. She would drag them in from everyway but when something happened she would claim not hers. When the police would catch them in town she wouldn't claimed them and after awhile the cops took them to the dump and shot them. Couldn't directly link ownership to her so I was just out a horse that was valued at about the cost of two new pickup trucks.

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That would have paid of college or my first house. Did I blame the dogs. No it was the owners fault 100%. The town, the police and the State Predator Control fly around the edge of her property didn't stop here from getting more dogs. She final stopped getting more dogs after she personally had to deal with a dozen or so gut shot dogs that went back to her porch. Terribly cruel yes but that was the only thing that got through to her.

She lived about a mile and 1/2 out of a town of about 800 people. The towns folk and her were always fighting about the dogs but nothing getting resolved. About a year later one of the towns 8 year old girls was mauled by a pack of dogs. Blinded in one eye and facially scared for life. After that most of her dogs were shot on sight by the towns folk, yet she would just drag more in. This was in a rural area in a state that has no case law and the gun was legally empty if there was not a round in the chamber. Everyone drove pickups and every pickup had a gun rack in it with at least one rifle and one shotgun.

See didn't get the message when the State Predator Control officer would fly around the edge of here 360 acres of land and shot dogs form the air. Nothing stopped her from getting more dogs until the towns folk started shooting them in the liver/guts and letting them run home to die. After a dozen or so that got the message through to her.

There was very serious talk about burning her house down with zero concern if she was in it. Had she not gotten rid of most of her dogs I believe that would have happened.

[brassrat]

Holy cripes the dog would have been like 150' away and the bb would maybe go 200' ( X 3 secs} would be like 70fps it wouldn't even sting. You seem a little tightly wound up for a little kids fun.

[sghart3578]

To M-Tecs,

You and I are in complete agreement. I am an animal lover, dogs and horses are the top two.

I feel for you and your experience in training the horse and then losing out.

I owned and rode my own trail horses for many years. I could never afford a first class performance horse, all of mine were grade horses from the auction or the occasional OTTB or Standardbreds that didn't make it on the race track.

But I know what it takes to turn out a horse of that caliber and you folks impress me. I have several friends that in the past have allowed me to ride top level reining horses, bridle horses and rope horses and they are a joy.

If you like I can post a picture of a horse I rode while escorting the roughstock into the main arena of the 2004 Reno Rodeo. He was a brute of a buckskin named Marshall. He was worth a lot of money to the owner and was used almost exclusively for roping range bulls.

All of this rambling is to demonstrate that guys like me are not heartless. But why should a dog be allowed to destroy one person's years of effort and love?

[MaryB]

This has ran its course and is falling into pettiness.