Advice needed: Dealing with feral & stray dogs

[toallmy]

The real problem with the abandoned dogs , is the person that dropped the animal .

[rondog]

If I lived in a rural setting and had that problem, I wouldn't even use a shovel. The carcasses would make good bait to lure in others.

[DanishM1Garand]

If I lived in a rural setting and had that problem, I wouldn't even use a shovel. The carcasses would make good bait to lure in others.

Until the neighbors trespassing see the carcasses. They moved to the country from town last year and think Walt Disney was a naturalist.

They will call the dog dog warden who also is a townie. He will arrest you and put you in front of a judge who lives in town and your jury is also from town.

SSS. All three if you are not in remote Wyoming. I mean forty miles from a town of five hundred.

[Rufus Krile]

Couple of years ago I went outside to investigate a lot of barking and discovered my neighbor backed up against his garage by a roaring, absolutely beautiful, rottweiler. Just like mine, only not. Neighbor said "I think your dog got out!" Replied "Bad news, Brian... that ain't my dog." At which point the rotty decided I needed some explanation of the rules and came over to discuss it with me. I'd picked up a broom but wasn't real sure just where I needed to hit that big square-headed SOB. Neighbor fidgeted enough to get the dog's attention long enough for me to retrieve the shotgun. When I reappeared he came roaring back to me and seemed a bit put out that I wasn't backing up. I told him in a calm voice that I didn't want to shoot a pretty animal like him but if his attitude didn't improve I was probably going to have to. Seemed reasonable at the time. He left, having made his point. Two weeks later he followed a neighbor kid home and attacked him in his garage. Next time I'll shoot.

[Lloyd Smale]

lots of post here are no doubt from people who don't have dogs. Ill be the man out here and say if you are going to do it you are probably breaking the law. You possibly are shooting a dog that belongs to a neighbor or someone from down that got loose. A dog that has owners that love it enough that they would consider putting a slug in your gut and letting you run off and die a miserable death. Now if a dog was giving me problems on my land id first try the police and animal control. If they didn't respond (they sure would around here) and that animal is ACTUALLY a threat to hurt you, not just a dog that might have growled at you once or one that if you chased it off probably wouldn't return. Then and only then would I consider putting it down and if I decided that it had to be done it would be done humanely. Anyone that tells you to shoot it in the guts and let it run off and die slowly so its not on your property is one sick individual. It isn't that dogs fault that hes wild in the woods. Its some warped in the head humans fault. That dog sure shouldn't be made to suffer. Keep in mind theres cases in court all the time from people who shot someones dog they thought was a stray. Keep in mind when your pulling that trigger that my dog is a choc lab. You might think twice because if you put a slug in my dogs gut just because he happened to wander onto your precious property I will hunt you down and nobody or nothing will stop me from returning that slug to you. Keep in mind too if your ever in my company and brag that you gut shot a dog or for that matter any animal so it would run off suffering and die somewhere so you don't have to clean up the mess you and I are about to go a couple rounds. I understand theres some circumstances where it HAS to be done. But at least do it with some class and do it as a last resort not as some kind of sport! A much better sport would be watching for those ignorant sobs that are turning those dogs loose by you and hunting them!!

[reloader28]

The OP said early on that the dog catcher was caught releasing the dogs so calling him is not an option. If people dont want their dog shot, then they better make sure it is not running around.
I dont care if the dog is a threatening or not, if stray/wild dogs are running around, they need to be shot, end of story.

[Lloyd Smale]

sorry I don't call many out but why would a dog catcher turn dogs loose. If anything theyd have them put down. If a dog catcher was truly letting dogs loose in the wild he would be out of work in a second and the city officials would have some serious explaining to do. Can you imagine the liability issues with letting a dog loose like that if it did attack a child. Sorry but this aint my first rodeo. Just an excuse to justify killing them.

The OP said early on that the dog catcher was caught releasing the dogs so calling him is not an option. If people dont want their dog shot, then they better make sure it is not running around.
I dont care if the dog is a threatening or not, if stray/wild dogs are running around, they need to be shot, end of story.

[lightman]

Thats a good post Lloyd and a good point. I agree, if you are going to shoot them you should be humane about it. And be sure they are wild and not someones pet. From reading the original post I don't think these are neighbors pets. I have seen occasionally packs of dog running loose in the rural and they can be dangerous. I drove up to an abandoned farm house one day to remove the service. I walked over to the transformer pole to open the switch and here came a pack of dogs out to get me. It was hot and heavy for a minute or two but I still had my switch stick collapsed and I went to swinging. If I had the stick run out I would have been in trouble as the only other thing I had were my 9's in my pocket and I was too far from the truck to run.

[Plate plinker]

sorry I don't call many out but why would a dog catcher turn dogs loose. If anything theyd have them put down. If a dog catcher was truly letting dogs loose in the wild he would be out of work in a second and the city officials would have some serious explaining to do. Can you imagine the liability issues with letting a dog loose like that if it did attack a child. Sorry but this aint my first rodeo. Just an excuse to justify killing them.

The DC may be a tree huggin freak? Also I don't recall anybody saying gut shooting is a good idea. I like dogs too but feral dogs are real. I know my neighbors dogs and I suppose most of others do too and they are dealt with by telephone and a rope.

btw I have been on both ends of this scenario. RIP blackie.

[alamogunr]

Strange that no one has addressed the problem of pets allowed to run loose and join a feral pack. Comments?

[johnson1942]

its calving time here and every one knows their neighbors dogs. a neighbors dog that is cared for can be easily seen, as a stray that is wild looking and ruff coated and acts like a wild animal. about 15 years ago i had a 150 pound dong i liked very much but she took to roaming at night and i could not stop her. next she would have started taking calves. i cried when i did it but i had to put her down. i had to. i never got another dog. the ones i see that follow the roads for road kill are way different than family dogs. they can be spotted in a second. those are the ones to shoot. i have a neighbor that has a female that decides to go to town now and then, when she goes by my place i call them and they go get her. also two ridgebacks came through my yard headed north. they were well fed and and did no harm. i just called the law to let them know in case the rancher who owned them called in so he could maybe find them. also a couple of greyhound came through recently also. i called the owner and he headed in the direction also to try and get them back. not every dog should be put down, just the wild ones that kill game and are a danger to kids. out in this country, the mountain lions usually take care of any stray dogs. they are a mountain lions favorite food beside barn cats.

[Gavetta]

Lloyd says it all.all this sociopathic **** about killing dogs that trespass on your property bring Lloyd to mind on a windlesssunny day about a 1000 yards out,thinking about his dog you killed

[Ballistics in Scotland]

lots of post here are no doubt from people who don't have dogs.

I wouldn't count on it. We see posts by people who have people, but brighten their drab little lives. perhaps not just the waking hours, with the thought of getting to kill somebody. I never hunted rabbits the less for having a tame wild one (which Darwin says can't be done) who thought he was one of the cats until he tried to climb their tree and found his claws wouldn't work. But the other rabbits didn't regard humans as somebody they could trust, and I certainly never in my life lost a wounded rabbit, let alone deliberately sent one off wounded. If it takes a town jury to convict for that, a town jury it ought to be.

Some feral dogs can indeed be dangerous, although there is usually a human at the root of it. The size of rottweilers and similar breeds is an added complication, for Jack Russells get kicked off and hear some uncanonical language every day, while rottweilers get into the papers with nothing worse.

But panic is a frequent complication. When someone lacking in confidence gets onto a pretty good horse, it will often think "here's where I have a bit of harmless fun", and a lot of feral or temporarily-feral dogs are the same. Fold your arms out of reach, talk to them quietly and walk slowly towards them, and most will calm down. A pack of Arabian wild dogs, probably not owned by anybody in hundreds of generations, certainly did for me, and came to regard me as their special friend. They never struck me as irreformably dangerous in the way baboons did. A friend of mine has another in retirement in Spain, and she took the job of house dog seriously from the first minutes. Neither were a fraction as alarming as my Irish terrier, who is harmless to man or beast, even rabbits, but does a marvellous imitation of non-contact karate when kids come over the wall after a ball. Heaven knows where a roar that size comes from. He would range harmlessly for a half-mile and a half-hour with interesting company, and I know what I would think of his being shot and perhaps deliberately maimed by a lower life-form than himself.

There can certainly be a need, sometimes, to kill feral dogs. I don't know if the expression "sheep-worrying" crosses the Atlantic? It means biting, not just getting them nervous or perplexed. A farmer can shoot any dog caught in the act, or he can advertise that he has experienced sheep-worrying and any dog found on his land will be shot. Then he has the right to, but otherwise he could be in trouble. That about covers it. I certainly wouldn't draw any wider conclusions from one dogcatcher being seen releasing dogs. Is there any profession on earth where the occasional member doesn't get caught bending?

[texasnative46]

To All,

BE GLAD that your problem is "feral dogs". - Here in South Texas, we have a plague of feral hogs, wild or abandoned donkeys & (imo, THE WORST) roaming packs of COY-DOGS & WOLF-HYBRIDS that are TRULY WILD, AGGRESSIVE & DANGEROUS.

yours, tex

[jcwit]

Here where I live the problem is with feral cats, and I live in town albit a small one that has an ordinance against shooting.

[popper]

Why do people not realize these animals are smart (well, except armadillos) and return to their 'natural' mode of operation very quickly (whatever their survival mode is). Then they are no longer 'pets'.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

We live in a semi rural area and people from larger towns frequently drive up with there dog in the car or truck and kick them out of the vehicle. We often see the dog walking around, looking confused, thirsty and hungry. They have no dog collars so it is easy to tell they are drop offs. These slime balls apparently think that people with large property must surely need a dog. My wife and I took in one of these drop offs and kept the dog until she passed eleven years later. As for a dog catcher releasing dogs he caught, maybe we could chalk it up to job security.

[richmanpoorman]

Move to WY, ID or MT ....... the wolves take care of any wild dogs. When all the dogs are gone, the wolves get a TSX through the guts.

[texasnative46]

richmanpoorman,

Here in South TX, the wolves BREED the feral bitches & the pups grow up to be FIERCE, PREDATORY & UNAFRAID of people. = NOT really fun.

yours, tex

[Smoke4320]

just give 'em a little antifreeze to keep 'em warm at night