So sad...my chickens are *gone*.

[Jill- OK]

We came home this afternoon from church, and our chicken coop had been *torn* into (wire fencing on the henhouse door, and the side of the coop was ripped back), and the hens were dead on the ground. Rooster is nowhere to be seen (we looked for him so the little kids wouldn't come across him sometime later).

 

(Begin mild rant)

 

My husband and son say that the evidence points to dogs. (Chickens were just killed, not eaten, which for some reason just made it even worse).

 

We live out in the country, and there's a ridiculous (to me) number of dogs that roam freely. There's a neighborhood across the road from us, where I go to walk, and I've run into roaming dogs there, and seen them on the roads around our house. They've ransacked our trash. Sometimes, we're able to attach certain dogs to certain places, because we'll see the same dog out in the road in front of the same property (wearing tags and obviously a pet), and sometimes they're just wild, roaming dogs.

 

Yes, I know that Animal Control exists, but...the size of this problem seems so...un-fixable. :-(

 

I've never been a fan of bumper stickers, but I thought today of getting a magnetic sign made for the side of my van that reads "(Name of my Po-Dunk Town) Residents: LOCK UP YOUR *^#^# ANIMALS!!!"

 

I just feel that there's this attitude that no one cares if their animals are out pillaging, or/and no one cares if they're dumping off unwanted animals in an agricultural community where there's plenty of pseudo-prey for them to damage. This is my first year living in the *serious* country...is this common? Or just something my particular area enjoys, lol? :confused:

 

I'm probably overreacting, but...I'm really upset. Sorry. Thanks for listening.

[Elaine]

:grouphug: That sticks, Jill, I'm sorry.

[senunk]

I'm sorry. I don't like roaming dogs, either. I don't understand just letting your dog run around wild. I've lost chickens before, but to raccoons and possums. It aways made me sad.

:grouphug:

[StaceyinLA]

no offense to any country-folk here. I have just not seen the same spay/neuter mindset in the country that I saw in the city. That leads to unwanted puppies, kittens then, later, dogs and cats. There is ALWAYS somebody at the ball park with kittens, WAY too little to be given away, in a box trying to find them homes. It just makes me sick and sad and I just want to scream, "SPAY AND NEUTER PLEASE!!!!" And let's not forget the box full of "lab-mix" puppies in the Wal-Mart parking lot! Labs can get spayed too ya know?!?

 

In addition to the above problem, people in nearby towns know we are rural and they come dump animals. I can't tell you the strays that get dumped out here. How sad for the animals, and for those of us who can't stand to see animals in distress (I have picked up WAY too many).

 

I just wish animals (specifically, pets) were born sterile, and folks would have to PAY for them to be able to reproduce. It sure would cut down on the pound population problem, and the misery of abused/abandoned animals.

 

Sorry - guess u just hit a sore subject for me!

[genie]

Man, that would really upset me, too. The whole thing. We have very few strays running around where I live, but I think that's mostly because we have plenty of wild coyotes. So either people keep their pets fenced better, or the coyotes get the ones who do stray. Sorry about your chickens!

[StaceyinLA]

We lost some recently too and it was so awful. My favorite big ole light brahma was dead in the stall, and another had been half-eaten and was jammed between the fence/stall (I assume it was from a coon trying to pull it out).

 

After that last brutal assault, my dh made, "The Fortress." We haven't lost another chicken since.

[nmoira]

Jill, I'm so sorry to hear about your chickens. :(

 

Unfortunately, I think it's the country mentality... no offense to any country-folk here. I have just not seen the same spay/neuter mindset in the country that I saw in the city.

Uh huh, and, while I can only speak anecdotally, DH's uncle, his children, and their neighbors think nothing of shooting stray dogs and cats. I haven't been back for Thanksgiving since that particular conversation.

[Jill- OK]

DH's uncle, his children, and their neighbors think nothing of shooting stray dogs and cats. I haven't been back for Thanksgiving since that particular conversation.

 

I have to admit that I understand someone shooting a stray that's killing their animals.

 

Just to illustrate something from the other side; someone we know (not from our town, but one nearby) did shoot and kill and dog that had come on his property and killed calves (I think more than one was killed, and I *know* there was more than one 'incident', although I'm not remembering all the particulars)...and went to jail for it.

 

In small town Oklahoma, lol.

 

So...there's frustration on that end, too. Not that it's not meaningful when pets or hobby animals are killed, but calves like my friend's represent an investment. (Well, I guess other animals do, too...just can't articulate why I feel so strongly about his situation).

[nmoira]

 

I have to admit that I understand someone shooting a stray that's killing their animals.

I get this too, but that wasn't what the conversation in question was limited too... sorry, didn't want to get into too much detail.

[Jill- OK]

I get this too, but that wasn't what the conversation in question was limited too... sorry, didn't want to get into too much detail.

 

...that I don't agree with the shooting of strays just 'because', which is what you might have been talking about (I know that happens, but I don't think it's a problem in my area, evidently, lol).

 

Sorry I didn't clarify that!

[sdWTMer]

I'm so very sorry Jill.

 

I would so much like to some day have chickens. I don't know why, but it is a dream for me.

[nmoira]

 

Sorry I didn't clarify that!

Oh, don't worry, your post was clear enough. :)

[Holly IN]

hhmmm

 

We think nothing of shooting stray dogs that came to our property. We had lost so many chickens due to dogs and coyotes as well as hawks. If they were friendly and just curious then we would leave them alone. We had some come on to our property digging around the coop. :glare: So we would shoot to scare them off. If it persist to dig or turn and growl at us then we wouldn't hesitate to shoot them. They can come back and attack our kids while they are out.

 

If people would just keep their dogs in fenced in area they wouldn't run into this problem.

I am sorry about OP's chickens. I truly feel for you as we have lost chickens numerous times!!

Holly

[Jill- OK]

..some losses before, but for some reason, the idea that it's stray dogs (and the fact that they are *all* gone) is really bugging me.

 

I know this sounds bad, but when it's wildlife, I still hate it, still take measures against the animals, but there's a sort of 'circle of life' redemption to it, lol. (The raccoon is just seeing food).

 

The dogs just killing them, and thinking about how they wouldn't be there (in such numbers) if people weren't dumping them or letting them run free is what's stuck in my craw, right now. I need to let it go.

 

After that last brutal assault, my dh made, "The Fortress." We haven't lost another chicken since.

 

Here's what's probably really the root of my sadness...my husband is hedging about building a Chicken Fort Knox, and I think that's the only way we're going to be able to get more. I know he'll probably end up doing it, but I don't know when, and that's making me truly feel robbed.

 

But...I'm off to count my blessings.

 

And use some store bought eggs I have on hand to make a pound cake. :-(

[Reesegirl]

Jill, I am so sorry that you lost your chickens. I grew up on a small farm and the day before I went to kindergarten some dogs came on to our property and killed all of our chickens. I still remember the horror that we all felt when my mom came out of the coop after seeing the dead chickens. I didn't see the mess but remember that it was heartbreaking. My dad also shot the stray dogs that were on our property. He said that once a dog had killed a chicken they would do it all over again. I hope you will be able to replace them..

[HomeOnTheRanch]

Sorry! Unfortunately we understand. We had a couple of dogs roaming around that got one of our chickens. I stood out in the driveway for over an hour waiting for animal control to show up (and to make sure those poor, starving dogs didn't get any more of the chickens). AC showed up, set one trap for the dogs and left. GRRRRRR. I called AC an hour later to let them know one of the dogs was in the trap. "We'll come by tomorrow to pick it up." GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Yes, they killed our chicken, but leaving it out exposed all night? I was steamed.

 

They did come by the next morning to pick up the dogs (the other stayed right by the pal). A few days later there was envelope on our door from animal control with a $10 bill inside to pay for the chicken. Not only did the owner have to pay $50 each to get the dogs back, but she had to pay for the chicken. Very small consolation, but at least it was something. It was more than any hawk or possum ever paid.

 

The owner had moved over a month previously and the dogs had run off while she was loading up. She never bothered putting up signs or reporting them missing. The dogs were still wearing the tags so they were able to track her down. Other neighbors had reported them to animal control, but it wasn't until they were caught causing damage that they did anything.

 

That loss hurt the most because it was totally preventable.

[Kathy in MD]

I'm sorry about your chickens. That's tough.

 

But there is a country mind set that says it's ok to let your dogs and cats roam free. Part of it is that many of these animals have real jobs besides being pets. And the strictly pets gain the freedom of their working brethern. But with the freedom goes a mind set that your dog may be shot if caught destroying livestock, either your neighbors or yours. Sometimes if the dog's owners are known, the owner may get a warning call.

 

Growing up in the the country, many of the female dogs were spayed. However others weren't because the farmers use them for breeding stock for their next generation of working dogs and to sell. And sometimes breeding mistakes happen.

 

Farmers tend to be more pragmatic about the life and death of animals. Much of what they raise will be slaughtered in order to feed non-farmers. That's not to say they don't still feel it, but they realize it's part of the life cycle. And dogs that change from being protectors of the farm to destroyers get shot. It's sad, but farmers can't always rehome a dog to a safe area, especially if it's an unknown dog that may be unpredictable.

[Jill- OK]

Thanks for listening and sympathizing.

 

It really does help.

[Cheryl in NM]

We are country. Our dog does roam the neighborhood, but she doesn't get into trash or kill other's animals. She doesn't roam all the time, we just haven't successfully fenced her in yet since we moved the house and put up a new fence. There are still a few gaps we need to fix. That said: we lock her in the house at night when she roams the most. If our neighbors brought it to our attention that she was behaving any other way than what we thought we would lock her in the house until we could fix all the fence gaps.

 

Our neighbors on the other hand are a different breed. They believe they live in the country so they don't have to contain their animals. One neighbor has an aggressive tom cat that has cost us about $500 in vet bills for our cats. The neighbor's said they saw a stray cat; it couldn't have been theirs. When we told them that we saw their cat in our house twice (pet door), they just said sorry. My husband has a .22 bullet that has the cat's name on it. The other neighbor has rotwielers & pit bulls that he absolutely refuses to contain. They have cost us thousands of dollars of vet bills on the cat and the horses. Before we had the animals they would always be at our house spreading the diapers from the trash all over the yard. Nothing kept them out of the trash. We would shoot them in the hind quarters with the BB gun every single time they came on our property. We even put up an electric fence at dog level. They found their way in. These dogs actually hunted and killed the wild horses that roam around our house. The authorities were notified and did nothing. Since we've been back at the property, after being gone 2 years, dh has made it clear to all neighbors that this will not be tolerated anymore. Any animal that causes vet bills on our property will be put down and my dh will do it. That is actually our state law, thank God! I hate that it might come to this. I love animals, but these pets of my neighbors are predators.

 

This sums up all country mentality that I've heard: "An animal can run free if it doesn't cause problems. If it causes problems the owner's are notified. If it is aggressive it has to be put down." Of course the pet owner is liable for all costs their animals incur but I've yet to find an owner that will actually pay. We were going broke on vet bills before we took our hiatus.

 

My thoughts are with you. Chickens are so innocent and really fun pets. It's just so senseless.

[Julpost]

We lost some recently too and it was so awful. My favorite big ole light brahma was dead in the stall, and another had been half-eaten and was jammed between the fence/stall (I assume it was from a coon trying to pull it out).

 

After that last brutal assault, my dh made, "The Fortress." We haven't lost another chicken since.

 

Can you share the details about "The Fortress"...I don't want to lose any of my chickens.

Thanks!!

[sassenach]

We had a chicken massacre this week as well. We think our culprit was a family of raccoons. 10 chickens gone. Feathers and chicken parts were everywhere. Such a bummer. Our favorite, who was kind of a pet chicken, she used to hang out on the front porch and was just the funniest thing, is among the casualties.

 

I feel your pain.

[Jan P.]

Jill,

 

I'm sorry that dogs got ahold of your chickens. I hate to say this, but this is a common occurence in the country. I help out at a local stable/petting farm, and they have had numerous chickens and goats killed due to roaming dogs. I'm sure the dogs belong to the neighbors who do not keep their dogs fenced in. I made it a point to keep my dog fenced in.

 

I hope you find your rooster.

Jan P.

[Remudamom]

That's too bad, but it sure does happen with chickens.

 

Let's see if I can follow all the comments.

 

1. I can't shoot a stray myself unless it's threatening something, I've taken in countless strays til I could place them. I don't have a problem with people shooting dogs that are chasing livestock or destroying property.

 

2. All our cats and dogs are given the run of the place. What's the use of living on a ranch and penning up your dogs? Course, they'd have to go miles to get off our place.

 

3. When we did have a big dog that was a chronic cause of trouble for our neighbors we had him put to sleep. We tried for four years to find another way and it wasn't happening. Too big for the city and too expensive for us to keep (our neighbor bought a new truck with the money from damages) and too unhappy penned up.

[Denisemomof4]

It could very well be dogs, but I know of more people who lost all their chickens the same way that weren't eaten, either. Just today I was speaking to someone who said all the heads were off the chickens but the bodies remained. She said that happens when the older animals are teaching their young. Don't know if it's true or not.

 

That's heart breaking, though. I have one chicken and one rooster (all the rest died within 4 years or were eaten by foxes, wolves, fisher cats, etc.) left. They're both the SWEETEST animals! My chicken is like a little dog, coming when her name is called, following me around everywhere I go, running up to me when she sees me, etc. She comes to my house every day for cheese and apples. :D I only let her out in the morning, trying to prolong her life. I thought if we made an outdoor pen, the same that yours sounds like, they'd be safe and then I could get more! Darn! I'll have to rethink my construction plans.

 

So sorry! That's so sad!

Denise

[Jill- OK]

Can you share the details about "The Fortress"...I don't want to lose any of my chickens.

Thanks!!

 

We have a coop with an inner henhouse where the chickens were put up at night...but that outer door to the henhouse was torn back, too. (And it wasn't flimsy).

 

I envision us keeping the same situation, but putting a fence (maybe with a roof) around the whole shebang.

 

I'm open to suggestions, though.

[Mamagistra]

Aw...:grouphug: That totally stinks. We've had a dog pack come pretty close to our coop, but the border collies warned me. Then I was able to scare the pack away by running madly up the road in flip-flops shaking a broom. Yes, I'm sure I was quite scary. ;)

 

Hot wire fencing may be a solution for you. Or how about a dog? :)

 

I do hope you'll get more chickies. Ideal Poultry is a great place to do some chicken-dreamin'. :tongue_smilie:

[Chels~]

Sorry about your chickens.

[orangearrow]

First, I am SO sorry about your chickens. :( I'd be heartbroken. :(

 

 

And let's not forget the box full of "lab-mix" puppies in the Wal-Mart parking lot! Labs can get spayed too ya know?!?

Sorry - guess u just hit a sore subject for me!

 

This made me laugh because that's exactly how we wound up with our lab-mix dog almost 8 years ago. lol He's half lab, half shar-pei and an awesome dog. (even though I'm still not quite sure what possessed me to bring him home that day - we weren't even looking for a dog at the time. :glare: )

[3lilreds in NC]

As a country girl, I can tell you that it's most definitely a country mentality. When I was growing up, we had an intact male black lab who was pretty much free to roam where he wanted. Apparently there were a lot of intact female dogs too, because there were several litters of "Spot puppies" nearby.

 

We had lots of cats - none of them fixed until we had one that kept having litters. She had 2 or 3, we found homes for the kittens, but when she got pregnant again, she went for a walk in the woods with my dad and his gun. After that, the cats were spayed/neutered. Too traumatic on the kids, you know, to have their pets disposed of like that.

 

My dad used to shoot stray cats that would come into our yard.

 

My dad shot a dog that was aggressive towards him multiple times that lived on my grandparents' dirt road - they lived behind us and he was walking to get in shape for a hunting trip. He warned the owners. They did nothing about the dog, so my dad kept his word.

 

We had more dogs hit by cars than I can remember anymore, because my parents, thinking that we could just let them out to roam because we lived in the country, didn't seem to realize that we lived on a somewhat busy road, on a hill, and people couldn't see coming up over the hill and our dogs got killed there all the time. I am not exaggerating when I say that there were at least 8 dogs killed that way in a few years' time.

 

Looking back, I know that my mom grew up on a farm and my dad grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when there were very few people; it's how their parents dealt with their animals. I was sick over the dogs we lost and I don't allow my animals to roam.

 

Even in suburban NC, though, I have neighbors who let their animals run free. It's ridiculous and it makes me angry quite regularly. We live too close together here for that! They don't seem to care, though. It's nuts.

[Mekanamom]

We have a coop with an inner henhouse where the chickens were put up at night...but that outer door to the henhouse was torn back, too. (And it wasn't flimsy).

 

I envision us keeping the same situation, but putting a fence (maybe with a roof) around the whole shebang.

 

I'm open to suggestions, though.

 

We have our chickens double fenced. They are in our backyard behind 6 ft tall privacy fence and in a coop entirely lined with chicken wire and bird netting on the roof to discourage hawks.

 

And still- our chickens would be toast if a determined raccoon wanted to get them.

 

The very best solution that I've been able to come up with, but can't afford, is to build or buy a large dog run in which to keep the chickens. Seriously- if it is made to keep dogs in, it ought to certainly keep them out. Chain link, fully enclosed. Safest chicken Fort Knox I can envision. But not cheap. :glare:

 

I'm sorry about your chickens- we lost two batches of hens to roaming dogs before we built the backyard coop. And the ones we have now are still vulnerable to coons.

[Tracy in Ky]

I am so sorry :crying:

[LizzyBee]

I get this too, but that wasn't what the conversation in question was limited too... sorry, didn't want to get into too much detail.

 

You mentioned Thanksgiving dinner in the first post... I have to ask but I'll probably regret it...

 

Are they eating the strays they shoot? :ack2:

[nmoira]

 

Are they eating the strays they shoot?

:lol: No.... at least it looked like a ham... I used to know a guy who ate road kill though, so that might not be too much of a stretch... :ack2:

[Heather in the Kootenays]

That happened to me too. It was weasel and it got through a hole the size of my hand. When I opened the coop in the morning there were only hen bodies and a very shaken rooster. I was just sick about it.

 

I hate it when something happens to animals under my protection.

[Spy Car]

I can sympathize. I don't live in the country (actually in a leafy-suburb of Los Angeles) but we have a back-yard flock of Rhode Island Red bantams.

 

And like most (all?) chicken keepers we've lost hens to predators including hawks, opossums, and raccoons. And it is painful to lose one (much less all) in an attack.

 

Still, we've only lost chickens during daylight hours when the chickens were out and about, or when we've been too slow to secure the coop in the evening.

 

Since I know we have raccoons in our area I made the coop very secure, using a stout gauge of "aviary mesh" inset in wood frames. No dog, or gangs of dogs, could get into this coop.

 

A coop a dog could break into strikes me, by definition, as not being strong enough. Stray dogs are a fact of life in the country. A coop should be built strong enough to secure chickens against reasonable threats...certainly before one goes shooting other peoples animals. One man's opinion.

 

Sorry you lost your chickens.

 

Bill

[Sparkle]

I'm so sorry about your chickens! :angelsad2: That makes me sad. I'd love to have chickens someday. It doesn't seem unreasonable that people should keep their dogs from roaming about and attacking other animals.

[Cheryl in NM]

I forgot to mention that we use "stucco" wire and not chicken wire or aviary net. We've never had ANYthing get into or out of our coop. There's a pic on my blog below. It looks ugly, but it works great.

 

ETA: Dh also attaches the stucco wire to the wood with the old fashion pound in staples. They look like and elongated C with points on the ends.

[Tammyla]

That just plain old stinks. A big hug and sorry about your hens.:grouphug: And I'm sorry, I don't know nothin about no chickens. :D However, I think the owners (who ever they are or were) should be held accountable. That might make them think twice before letting them out or dumping them off. Hit em in the pocket. Sure wish you could.

 

We came home this afternoon from church, and our chicken coop had been *torn* into (wire fencing on the henhouse door, and the side of the coop was ripped back), and the hens were dead on the ground. Rooster is nowhere to be seen (we looked for him so the little kids wouldn't come across him sometime later).

 

(Begin mild rant)

 

My husband and son say that the evidence points to dogs. (Chickens were just killed, not eaten, which for some reason just made it even worse).

 

We live out in the country, and there's a ridiculous (to me) number of dogs that roam freely. There's a neighborhood across the road from us, where I go to walk, and I've run into roaming dogs there, and seen them on the roads around our house. They've ransacked our trash. Sometimes, we're able to attach certain dogs to certain places, because we'll see the same dog out in the road in front of the same property (wearing tags and obviously a pet), and sometimes they're just wild, roaming dogs.

 

Yes, I know that Animal Control exists, but...the size of this problem seems so...un-fixable. :-(

 

I've never been a fan of bumper stickers, but I thought today of getting a magnetic sign made for the side of my van that reads "(Name of my Po-Dunk Town) Residents: LOCK UP YOUR *^#^# ANIMALS!!!"

 

I just feel that there's this attitude that no one cares if their animals are out pillaging, or/and no one cares if they're dumping off unwanted animals in an agricultural community where there's plenty of pseudo-prey for them to damage. This is my first year living in the *serious* country...is this common? Or just something my particular area enjoys, lol? :confused:

 

I'm probably overreacting, but...I'm really upset. Sorry. Thanks for listening.