Doing what we have to in order to protect our livestock and pets

This post is NOT for the folks who think that all beings can co-exist in harmony. PLEASE READ NO FURTHER if you have issues with shooting semi domesticated animals.

Carl has been keeping his guns in our truck so that they are accessible should our neighbors dogs visit the farm. A couple years ago while out working on the greenhouse Danny, our neighbor with uncontrollable dogs, said to us, “If you see my dogs and their bothering you just shoot them. Don’t call Animal Control because I don’t have the money to pay the fines.”.

I did say to Danny, “We aren’t in the habit of carrying guns so most of the time we are unable to shoot your dogs if they are bothering us (us meaning our chickens, goats, pigs, dogs and cats), not to mention your dogs are very sneaky.”. Danny’s comment was that we should consider carrying a concealed weapon. Periodically he stops by the farm letting me know of classes so that we can obtain our “concealed” weapon permit. I am always telling Danny that I feel completely comfortable living here in Spring Creek without a concealed weapon. That was until just a couple days ago before our pigs were attacked by what we think are his dogs.

So…. Saturday morning while I was at market Carl heard two of what we think are Danny’s dogs behind our barn. He waited near the barn, then checked on the pigs, but the dogs never came out of the woods. A little bit later Carl was on the way to the mail box when he saw what we think are Danny’s dogs running across one of our fields. The dogs stopped for a minute and Carl was able to sight one in with his riffle and take it down. I AM THANKFUL CARL IS A GOOD SHOT.

Will this solve our problem? Probably not. Mainly because we are almost certain the dog that escaped was the alpha so the alpha dog will probably partner with another of the 25 dogs that live up at Danny’s and continue hunting for food. I can’t blame the dogs because they simply want to survive which is why they are hunting the animals in the neighborhood and domesticated animals are much easier to catch than wild. Madison County is large with little money which is why I guess Animal Control does not remove his dogs. Animal Control removes others pets so I am not sure why not Dannie’s. Perhaps it is something I need to look into.