Feral dogs?

Too many people do NOT understand the problem with feral dogs. A feral dog is NOT a pet, however much people may THINK they are.

Many feral dogs, sad to say, are self-inflicted. One of my brothers tells a story of a guy who thought it was "nice" to feed stray dogs in the country...until he shortly found himself spending hundreds on dog food feeding a growing population of breeding dogs which were NOT at all like pets. They were territorial, with all that implies to people's actual pets, livestock, people, and property.

Now this guy had to face a hard lesson in spending a few weekends with my brother putting down a large population of feral dogs.

They're bad enough singly...but it doesn't take but 2 or 3 to be a pack, and packs are much more dangerous.

All I can say is stay prepared until you get them put down.

Feral dogs are often bad news. Several years ago i was attacked by a huge Samoyed while opening a gate. Barely made it to the safety of my pickup. i killed that dog: No regrets.

Not much has been mentioned in this thread about the damage these dog packs can do to wildlife, especially this time of year when fawns are dropping. That's one reason if I know a dog is feral, he's going down. We have a good fawn crop this year, really good, and I am looking forward to a good season, though I'm more and more getting into just watching 'em rather than shooting 'em, but I do like my venison chili. I'm more into hog hunting now days than deer, but I do love to watch 'em and if a huge monster buck came along, I mean, ain't like I'd just let him go. LOL But, I sure the heck ain't gonna let wild dog packs take over around here. Having deer in your front yard every morning is fun. Heck, there's this one yearling my wife has named "Shelly", don't ask me why. But, every yearling in the woods around here, when we see it on the road, is "Shelly". Go figure.

I briefly perused the thread, and after 4 pages, I expect this is largely played out, but I have lived and farmed in rural areas my entire life, JUST close enough to civilization such feral/stray dogs have been a recurrent issue, so I'll share the law and decorum for where I live.

Kansas law allows property tenants/owners to defend their border. Dogs crossing borders are viewed by law as nuisances with potential for damage, even if no valuated property or bodily damage has occurred (i.e. stray dogs can run livestock through fences, cause animal stress, etc). Tenants/owners are well within their rights to shoot a stray/feral dog on their property. That said - the law is ALMOST such in Kansas, that ALMOST applies to people too... But I digress.

Naturally, shooting your neighbors' dog for chasing your horses or cattle, but without causing any damage/injury, in a rural community isn't a great way to win a popularity contest, so the typical decorum is to attempt to identify owners. If the owner can't be found, shoot on sight. If the owner is found, efforts are made to contain the animals, typically. If efforts aren't made, the law typically gets involved, and following which, shoot on sight.

If it acts aggressive to a person, then shoot on sight. If it's missed, then the law gets involved, and typically they'll either shoot on sight, or capture and put it down, especially if physical injury does occur.

But Kansas is a property right state. In general, if you or your property (i.e. dog) doesn't have express permission from the landowner/tenant to be somewhere, then express prohibition is implied. Some states are different, such societal access and usage rights are the law. I'm happy to NOT live in such states.

Decades ago I took a shot at a golden retriever that was menacing the cows across the field that surrounded the 10 acre goat farm I lived on. Since it was standing and barking in their faces I didn't want to hit it, just scare it away and give it a chance to learn. It was about 175 yards away, and I must have channeled an Olympic shooter at that moment, because I put a 150 gr .30-30 round into a gopher dirt hill right at the feet of that dog. It got sprayed with the dirt and jumped about 3 feet in the air, did a 180, and its legs were spinning like bicycle wheels before it's paws hit the grass and it ran off towards home.

Prollem solved, never saw that dog in the field again.

My landlords had seen other calves brought down by several dogs prior to my shot, so there was no love lost on packs of digs running loose... but I never saw another one doing that in the 3 years I lived there.

Keep a gun handy, you just never know when you'll need it.

Hopefully your problems will be solved as well, good luck!

Riomouse911 said:

Keep a gun handy, you just never know when you'll need it.

Click to expand...

Universally true. Would make a good bumper sticker.