We used to board horses on our property, and once in a while neighborhood dogs would terrorize the horses. One of our animal control officers told me that I could shoot any dogs that were endangering the horses, and I told the neighbors what would happen if they didn’t control their dogs, but I couldn’t be there all of the time, so we got a miniature donkey and kept it with the horses. Once a couple of dogs got in and scared the horses and the donkey killed both of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but they need to be controlled.
Yes. The same is legal here. However, it is the dog owner’s horse or horse owner’s dog, same thing. It would be really weird for animal control to shoot the owner’s dog that was attacking the owner’s horse.
I have seen Whipple shoot dogs attacking livestock when the livestock owner was there and ascertained that the dog was not his.
Same problem - had a very expensive Thoroughbred colt (born to my mare) plus several other horses. The neighbor down the street was letting her dogs (2) run. I caught them at my place going after 2 goats I borrowed from a friend to eat honeysuckle. Intervened just in time - one of the dogs turned back & challenged me, but I was able to chase it off. I sent the goats home. Then the dogs started chasing the horses and biting at their legs ... horses aren’t much use without good legs.
I talked to the neighbor - could see where the dogs were ripping up her kitchen flooring because they were so bored in the house - that is why she was letting them run. She denied it was her dogs, but one had very distinctive markings so there was no question it was her dogs. After ‘the talk’, she would let the dogs out when she thought I wasn’t around, so I called Animal Control.
This officer had been around forever - no nonsense. He went & talked to the lady & she denied her dogs were the culprits. He told her he was giving me permission to shoot any dogs harassing/chasing the horses. When the dogs were dead, he would come pick them up & take them to her house & then she could see if they were her dogs or not. I did not see those dogs again - found out about a week later, she had gotten rid of them. For sure they were part Husky & the other part looked like German Shepherd to me so they were large & the one was particularly aggressive with no qualms about challenging a person.
BTW, the threat about shooting the dogs was not an idle one.
One should ALWAYS put a donkey with horses or cattle.
Donkey’s are VERY protective of their “herd”. They’ll fight off coyotes, bobcats, wolves, too.
When neighborhood dogs pack up they can be a problem.
A couple got in and killed some sheep years ago. They came back a week later and tried to attack more. We were there and the dogs started running at us. Shot and killed one and injured the other. Deputy came out and knew whose dogs they were right away based on previous complaints. Found wool in between their teeth. The owners ended up writing us a sizeable check for the sheep (Registered Suffolks).