Rant at stray dogs

[hatchbackgirl75]

Not happy. A few weeks ago our pet rabbit was killed - it was in a metal hutch and a massive dog went to some pretty serious effort on more than one occasion until it finally broke in and just killed the rabbit, shredded it a bit and left it there for my daughter to find. Hutch is quite dented and damaged from having such a big dog belting at it trying to get in.

Today the same size massive footprints are around, my chook run fence was broken down and the posts snapped - dead chickens. Well, one dead and one missing. Daughter declares we have "broken bok boks".

Again, NOT HAPPY. Especially considering the cost of 'proper' fencing that will keep a dog out runs into thousands and a sealed metal $130 rabbit hutch wasn't enough to stand up to this dog.

If you've got a freakin massive dog, don't let it roam! 

[tricky]

So sorry to hear that you are having stray dog problems.
Trouble is, that the people that own these dogs, are so bound up in their own world, that they are either unable, or unprepared, to consider that their unnecessarily huge trophy dog is likely to cause this type of heartbreaking loss.
Responsible pet ownership seems to be a thing of the past for some people.

[Ray]

That is heartbreaking, especially for the children, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for any stray dogs around our area having heard your story.  Also, had I known you had bok boks, I would have sent you over some stale bread and vegetable scraps from time to time.

There used to be a small mixed breed dog from two streets away that used to walk around to our place, (with a few side tracks as dogs are wont to do), then crap on our front lawn and go home again. I tracked it,..  twice, and felt like doing the same on their front lawn.....   but I didn't have it in me.

In those days I had an old worn out slug gun, and I used a small punch to punch out some small wads of thick leather which I then soaked in oil to give them a little weight, loaded them into the barrel of the gun and waited. Next morning at about 7:00am I was waiting in the bedroom with the window slightly raised and the fly screen off and along comes Scruffy,  Yes, by this time he was so regular we had even given him a name.  He never hesitated, straight down the drive and onto the lawn, I waited until he was squatting nicely and about to take up the strain,.... POP!,... right in the rump. He went about a foot straight up, and his feet were doing about 100 miles an hour when he finally hit the ground again,... we never saw him again, except at a distance.

What a pity I no longer gave the air gun,....

[utegirl70]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA @ Ray!!! Classic!!!

Whilst we were living up in Jamestown, it seemed we attracted stray dogs. Dunno why?

We seemed to always be ringing the council dog catcher, and even he thought it was odd that we ended up with them there.

It's a pity that people who own dogs don't care enough to keep their animals safe, and stop them from roaming around at large... it's not fair that everyone else has to suffer at a the expense of a bad dog owner.

So many times we have had irresponsible dog owners ranting and raving at us for calling the inspector...well then, keep your dog secure, and you don't have anything to worry about, do you?

Same goes for idiots who buy pups/dogs and go out working all day and let them howl/yap/bark.

[Ray]

I guess that I am a bit of an anarchist at heart, and deeply resent all these petty little rules and regulations imposed by councils. Stray dogs to me are a part of living in the country, but,  it all comes into focus when they attack the animals of others, and worse still, sometimes children.

I have only ever called the dog catcher once, about 12 months or so ago. The reason I did it was that I found the dog sitting in the middle of the road near the Bowling Green and it was obviously someone's pride and joy, a small long haired Shi Tsu or similar. Definitely the sort of dog one sees wandering about very often, it was obviously lost and it looked absolutely bewildered, the fact that it never got out of my way and off the road, was a pretty good indication that it never spent much time around traffic and I was worried that it would get run over.

I picked it up with no trouble at all, and being a Sunday took it out to the home of the dog catcher, who although she was officially off duty said that she would take care of the dog. The long and the short of it was that only an hour later the owner contacted the dog catcher and was happily re united with her pet. She also came around to thank me.

A happy ending all around.

In the case of dogs harassing stock, they are liable to be shot which is often costly for the stock owner and heartbreaking for the owner of the dog.

We had no dog catcher when I was growing up here, and there were certainly plenty of dogs in the town, I don't seem to remember too many problems though, what is it that has changed?