Tragedy on the farm
Rusty got home just before me, and I started dinner while she went out to do the chores. I saw a dark something on the back lawn and thought, "What's that? I'll have to check it out." Suddenly Rusty burst in. "Get your gun! There are 2 big dogs out there and they've killed about a dozen chickens!" There in the pen were the 2 criminals, looking serene and a little sorry. (Click here for popup ; WARNING: graphic content.) "If we shoot them, we'll have to bury them," she said. "Go call the animal warden." I got the sheriff's office, who put out a call for the animal guy. When I came back, Rusty had locked down the remaining chickens. Apparently they knocked one gate loose, and broke an inner gate. They couldn't make it into the coop, so anyone who was inside or got inside was safe. Outside was one mauled but ambulatory silkie, and 3 hens that looked like they would need to be put down. I gave Rusty my coat, went in for another. She suggested I do the chores. After I got the eggs from the carnage house, she suggested I bring her cigarettes. As I went to do that, I saw an Ameraucana walking on the road down to Mary Ann's. Its butt was chewed, but it was ambulatory, so I guided it home. "She put up a hell of a fight," Rusty said, "No, it knew to run like hell."
Around 8, as darkness fell, the dog warden came. He called the dogs, they came, he put 'em in the truck. Went out and took pictures of the dead. We counted 14 dead, (including our one White Rock rooster) and 2 injured. Rusty is filling out paperwork as I write. Per the warden, you can kill animals who are killing your stock, and the warden will pick up the bodies. I had thought that you could kill trespassing animals but had to pay for them; evidently that's just trespassing, not stock killing.
I set aside the eggs from the old girls (who were fine) to set...didn't want to set new girls because male silkies have been jumping around and I didn't want any half-bantam chicks.
Comments
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: March 12, 2007 11:12 PM
How doth the shed sit solitary that was so full of chickens! A voice is heard in Ramah, Rusty weeping for her chickens!
Can you trace the owners of these canines? Or were they feral?
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: March 13, 2007 08:14 AM
I want to set the Lamentations some day. But given the likelihood that a major American city will be destroyed in my lifetime, I'm sandbagging that project.
No clue on the dogs. They might belong to somebody on the next road down (3/4 mi away.)
Posted by: Kevin DeWitt
Posted on: March 13, 2007 11:38 AM
Sad how people don't care enough to keep track of their dogs. Some move to the country expecting life to be free and easy, especially for their canines. More and more of those folks move in around us by the month. People just don't realize that they are putting their own animals at risk by letting them go assuming they will be ok.
Ever since I was old enough to walk with the flocks there have been the danger of dog and coyote attacks. Domestic canines, if left alone, will form packs like their wild counterparts. But they don't have to 'pack' to be dangerous. Several years ago, a neighbor let his red spaniels loose and they killed 14 of our Rhode Islands. Gummed them to death was more like it. I felt bad shooting at them, but the anger outweighed anything else. Both got away, 1 wounded. After that I bought a scope.
Shoot and bury is our policy. I am leary of people walking animals not on a leash. The farm isn't a park, it's my business. If a dog jumped on a grocery store display and started eating steaks, you better believe someone would pay for it. Two years ago, coyotes killed 5 lambs. ODNR payed for it (about $45 each) but the documentation was long. I think you should be rembursed for the loss. It might warrant a call to your local County Extension office.
I am sorry to hear of your loss, brother. -Kevin
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: March 13, 2007 11:59 AM
Thanks, Kev - nice to see you here.
Funny, you came up in an email to my dad this AM. We were discussing the insanity of corn-based ethanol, and corn-on-corn "rotation", and the paucity of field crops grown in this state ("Soy: the other row crop"...nicer I suppose than "Soy: what food eats"), and I said, "My farmer bud grows wheat, but he also keeps sheep so he's got to be a hippie weirdo." Meant in the best way, of course...
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: March 13, 2007 10:56 PM
Oh, you don't need to wait.
Jazz style for New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina.
American folk influence for performance on the anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution of 1789.
Or write it in preparation for the election of 2008. Sell it to the Repugnants if the Demons win, and sell it to the Demons if the Repugnants win.
Seriously, given the current crop of candidates, the election is going to be a sure disaster for us, so why not use Lamentations as a text for that?
Posted by: Jo
Posted on: March 14, 2007 08:58 PM
My grandpa blew away a neighbor's dog that wouldn't stay out of his chicken pen and whose owner didn't seem to care, as evidenced by his constant failure to keep the dog chained up. When he dragged the dead dog over to the neighbor, he growled, "I shot the wrong culprit."
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: March 14, 2007 09:06 PM
Jazz style for the Lamentations? (shudder), It's bad enough that I set Judas Mercator Pessimus as modal disco. A nuke in NYC is something nobody will deserve, but the 2008 elections EVERYBODY will deserve.
Jo--you come from good stock.
Posted by: Mano Singham
Posted on: March 17, 2007 01:43 PM
I am sorry to hear about your chickens being killed. It must have been a ghastly sight and a shock to all of you.
The dogs seem to have been quite tame, they way they came to the warden when called, so I don't know why they went on the rampage. Or maybe it is their instinct ot attack birds, however tame they might be.
Although I am a dog lover, I have little patience with owners who do not keep an eye on them, both for the protection of the dogs as well as to prevent harm to others.
I am amazed to see dogs (obviously pets) wandering about loose in heavy traffic areas where I live, and wonder what the owners are thinking.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: March 28, 2007 12:32 PM
It WAS a ghastly sight, Mano...that's why I did the picture as a popup instead of inline. :-) People can't say they weren't warned.