A strangers dog killed two of my chickens, who do I call?

cheekyemma

Hi, I need some advice about who to contact about this dog.
I live in a rural area where dog walkers are frequent past my house. Today a large Staff got in to my back garden and barged its way in to my chicken pen, and savagely killed two chickens. My husband had to prise its jaws off on of the chickens as it had such a hold, and the owner stood there screaming. Then she legged it! I am so angry and upset, but also at the thought that I have a 17mth old and if she had been in the garden, I dread to think what may have happened. This needs to be addressed, as the dog in my opinion is dangerous, but who do I contact, ( I also dont know who the woman is).

It angers me that she couldnt stay around to take responsiblity for her dogs actions.
Does anyone know what I should do?

MoneySavingStudent_2

She should have taken responsibility but in the same way just because a dog takes a disliking to the chickens doesnt mean it is dangerous and therefore would have hurt ur child. However i do think the owner needs a talking too. How did the dog get into ur garden? Can you call ur local council to report it? x

MrsTinks

Call the local dog warden for starters

mrcol1000

cheekyemma wrote: »

Hi, I need some advice about who to contact about this dog.
I live in a rural area where dog walkers are frequent past my house. Today a large Staff got in to my back garden and barged its way in to my chicken pen, and savagely killed two chickens. My husband had to prise its jaws off on of the chickens as it had such a hold, and the owner stood there screaming. Then she legged it! I am so angry and upset, but also at the thought that I have a 17mth old and if she had been in the garden, I dread to think what may have happened. This needs to be addressed, as the dog in my opinion is dangerous, but who do I contact, ( I also dont know who the woman is).

It angers me that she couldnt stay around to take responsiblity for her dogs actions.
Does anyone know what I should do?

I am not sure there is anything you can do unless you know where the dog's owner lives or you got her car reg or something to identify her. I doubt very much if the dog owner will walk by your house again if she has any sense. If you can identify her then the dog warden may be able to take action over the straying onto your land. I am not sure anyone else will be able to do anything altough you could take legal action over the costs incurred.
As for the attacking the child. Staffs are very child friendly dogs and just becuase it attacked chickens does not automatically mean it would go for your child. I can well imagine its a scary thing to happen but sadly unless you know who the dog owner is then I would take steps to secure your land to stop it happening again. I can appericate you should really have to as people shouldn't let their dogs off a lead unless they can control them but sadly people do regardless.

foreign_correspondent

many, many dogs will kill chickens, rabbits and other small animals, given the opportunity, but would never hurt a child... it is in the instinct of many dogs, but it does not mean they are dangerous - just as many humans will happily eat a chicken, but have no urges to eat humans! ;-)

I don't think there is much you can do here to be honest, other than securing your garden or chicken coop from other dogs, as if dogs can get in you can be sure foxes will!

olias

I agree with the others. If you have frequent dog walkers passing your house, and you keep chickens, then you really need to adequately fence your garden. I am not blaming you, far from it, merely pointing out that if one dog has got in, then others will be equally likely to do the same.

If you live in a rural area, I would expect you know most of the locals and their dogs, so this person is likely to have just been there on a day out and not local. Highly unlikely you will see them again or be able to identify them, so in this case I do not think there is anything you can do.

Concentrate on securing your garden and hopefully it won't happen again.

Olias

lostinrates

This happened very recently to us. Walkers had opend or climbed over a gate and walked through our land (not right of way) with a dog of lead, and the dog ran ahead and grabbed one of my hens who later died. I was very upset and fuming, and wish in retrospect I had asked for contact details to take further. BUT I took the attitude the dog was not at fault. I would have like the people to make some contributuion towards the hen, but could not have asked them to take punitive action against their dog. I think I sufficiently made clear that only RoW should be walked down: and I think they were upset at the dogs ctions too.

If ny one reading this owns th dog that killed my beloved hen, she was bought in stock, and cost me £40 plus expences of collection, from about 100 miles away. more importantly she was loved. It would have been nice to at least say sorry.

cheekyemma

Thanks for all your replies, I have reported it to the dog warden. I understand that what has happened doesnt mean it would do that to a child, I guess I am just shocked about the whole thing. I have a staff cross who is gentle as anything, chases birds and squirrels playfully but would never in a million years kill anything. I still can't believe that she ran off like that! We are definetly tightening up security now though.

cheekyemma

sorry to hear that lostinrates, it really is sad because they are well loved and worthy pets. We had rescued ours from the battery hen welfare charity, only had them about a month but we were proud to be giving them a better quality of life for their retirement. I agree an acknowledgment of sorry would have been better than nothing at all, and although we gave a donation for a hens, we too travelled a distance to get them and bought special feed to build up their strength. Im getting quite sad again now so I wont go on, just wished the lady had some idea of the effect this is having on our family.