My husband and I left to have lunch with my daughter. We came home to a horrifying sight. Two dogs had jumped the chicken fence. A Golden Retriever and a Rottweiler . My dogs are going off in the backyard and the chickens were fighting for their lives. Rick jumped out of the car grabbed the rake and went after them. He started yelling for me to get his 22. By the time I got to the coop one dog was gone. The other had backed against the fence. He was still yelling at me to get his gun. I told him he can't shot the dog. He yelled (and I quote), "They killed my chickens ,I'll kill them." Needless to say I didn't get his 22. The dog finally was able to jump the fence and get away. They had tags ,so I went looking for them. Hoping to talk to the owners. Though before I left I called Heidi to warn her. Luckily she called Pat. They were at her house going after her chickens. Pat's dog was able to chase them off. I was just going down Pats street and saw the owners putting the dogs in their car. I let them know that the dogs had killed one of my chickens and mangled 3 more, and that the next time my husband would shoot them. I was able to stop him this time. But they wouldn't be that lucky next time. I have to say the owners of the dogs felt really bad about what happened. They offered to pay for the chickens. I informed them they didn't have to pay for them. Just keep there dogs locked up in the yard or house, and that they would be shot next time. After I calmed down a little. I realized they were trying to do the right thing. Their dogs had escaped and they were out looking for them. They were just as upset as I was about what happened.
We lost one chicken and the others were beat up and missing feathers . One is really bad, so we are keeping her in the dog carrier for now. I have to give a VERY, VERY, BIG THANK YOU to Heidi and Debbie from our homestead group. They came right over to help. Debbie knows a lot about chickens and was able to ease our minds. Both her and Heidi doctored our babes with a antibiotic. It will also stop them from pecking each other. I know that they think what they did was no big deal. But to me it was everything. And for my husband they made his day. Our chickens mean a lot to my husband. I pray no other dogs enter our yard. They may not leave.
I'm so sorry this happened Michelle! Thank goodness for friends to help when stuff like this happens!! By the way, I'm with your husband, they would have been dead dogs...
ReplyDeleteSo sorry this happened ! When I was a kid on our hobby farm we had spring lambs that were chased and killed by peoples dogs . It is a shame that some people cant control their dogs . We found it was people that moved from the city to the country and figured no harm would come if they let their dog rome . Pa get the shot gun !! As much as I do love dogs they have no right in killing our animlas especially as it is just more of a game to domestic dogs not for food ! Hope the chickens recover well !
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago we were awakened by the sound of dogs barking, it was not our dogs. They were after our rabbits. My husband ran them off. About an hour or so later, after we went back to sleep, we heard barking again, they were back. No more problems from these dogs. I undersatnd how you feel, I remember how I felt.
ReplyDeleteHope that your girl will be okay, glad that you have friends to help you out! Friends like that are a treasure!!!
I'm so sorry for what happened. We do love our animals. We had a good 3 years of varmits of all kinds...we finally had to fence upon fence and add to put into dog kennels inside fencing with tops and our Great Pyrenees Dog...Varmits make it so hard to enjoy your animals...
ReplyDeleteDolly
What a shame. I am glad that you came home when you did and that the dogs didn't go after your husband. Sorry you lost a chicken, but yay for your friends who came over to help. I remember as a child, we had pet rabbits we kept in a cage in our yard. One day as my parents pulled into our yard they saw some dogs we had never seen before throwing things into the air. The dogs had broken into the rabbits cage and killed everyone of them and were just playing with the dead rabbits. Daddy chased them off and we never saw them again and we never did find out who the dogs belonged to. Hopefully you won't have any more problems from those dogs and your two injured chickens will be okay.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry! We would have shot them, it's unfortunate because we love animals but it wouldn't be the first things we shot that were trying to kill our animals. It's just harder when it's a dog.
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible, I'm so sorry that happened to you. A friend of mine has lost all or most of her flock 3 times to the same dogs! They are neighbors dogs and always gone by the time they come home. Be very careful, chances are good that they keep coming back
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