The Feral Rooster

[DrunkleJon]

We had problems years ago with skunks & raccoons killing chickens. Raccoons are surprisingly strong and our shelter was no match for them. We had a fox problem two years ago but we got him. A lion killed one of our goats about 10 or 15 years back. Since then we haven't had lion problems but our neighbors (with hundreds of goats) have lost several. They killed one lion.

I don't mind that much the wildlife losses but there's a rental house nearby that seems to have new tenants every time I turn around and every new family has dogs that they won't keep up. We lost some chickens a couple of years back to a couple of Chihuahua crosses. The next family had bigger dogs that caught one of the neighbors' goats with her head tangled in the fence and ate her face.

That is the most frightening post I have ever read. Feral Chihuahuas? The 'domesticated' ones are vicious mean little yappy enough jerks as it is. I cannot imagine what a feral one would be like. And lions? No thanks. I will keep my annoying neighbor and the foxes, skunks and occasional transients that compose of most of the wildlife around here.

 

[Hamaki]

Yeah, the little yappy dogs were easy to catch & haul off to the pound even after they killed three chickens and mangled a fourth that died later. I left the three dead chickens on their owner's porch with a note saying the dogs were at the pound All I had handy to write on was the back of a cash register receipt so no room to explain how their dogs killed the chickens and that I left the chickens as proof and for the dog owners to deal with disposal. I thought that pert was pretty obvious, especially since I'd brought their dogs home to them a couple of times before and talked to them about the dogs chasing the chickens. Later a sheriff's deputy got hold of me because the neighbor reported it as some kind of threat or maybe a curse. We both thought that was kinda funny. Just to avoid confusion, however, I now shoot at dogs that worry my livestock. Talking to the owners doesn't do any good.

 

[jhoneycutt]

Yeah, the little yappy dogs were easy to catch & haul off to the pound even after they killed three chickens and mangled a fourth that died later. I left the three dead chickens on their owner's porch with a note saying the dogs were at the pound All I had handy to write on was the back of a cash register receipt so no room to explain how their dogs killed the chickens and that I left the chickens as proof and for the dog owners to deal with disposal. I thought that pert was pretty obvious, especially since I'd brought their dogs home to them a couple of times before and talked to them about the dogs chasing the chickens. Later a sheriff's deputy got hold of me because the neighbor reported it as some kind of threat or maybe a curse. We both thought that was kinda funny. Just to avoid confusion, however, I now shoot at dogs that worry my livestock. Talking to the owners doesn't do any good.

When we first moves to where we are now a couple neighborhood dogs killed my kids pet rabbits. Now I kill neighborhood dogs that mess around my pets. I tried once to fill the owners in on what was happening. They didn't listen, now I have no problems.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Yeaaaaahhhh.... sign me up for living in the country again

 

[Hamaki]

Unpleasant as it may sound, I still prefer it over my experiences in the city.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

The title of this thread, "The Feral Rooster" might make a good name for a restaurant. That or a pub ... one could hang a nice painted sign with wrought iron mountings out front like British pubs do with a rooster painted on it.
"The Feral Rooster" sounds better than "The Wild Cock" anyway.
Okay, I suppose considering the literal meaning of the word "feral" it would suggest the pub name should be "Cock's Gone Wild".
With a name like that it could be one of those women's strip clubs where bachelorette parties are held ...
Er ... uh ...
I digress.

 

[Owly055]

When we first moves to where we are now a couple neighborhood dogs killed my kids pet rabbits. Now I kill neighborhood dogs that mess around my pets. I tried once to fill the owners in on what was happening. They didn't listen, now I have no problems.

Dog owners never believe that their dogs are getting into mischief. The dog is on the front porch when they leave home and on the front porch when they get home, or in the yard when they go to bed and in the yard when they get up in the AM. Dogs aren't stupid! I know of a couple of instances of dogs killing livestock as far as 15 miles from home and the owner not believing it was their dog until the dog was brought home with a bullet. In one case the owner insisted that the dog must have been shot at home.... though the sheriff had done the shooting!

As a teen, I killed a German Sheppard in the front yard of the house where it lived.... with my bare hands!! The dog had attacked me on the sidewalk, and as it was cold weather I was wearing one of those heavy wool naval coats called a P-coat. When the dog leaped at my face, I put my left arm up so it grabbed my arm instead of my face or throat. My right arm went around behind it's neck, and I went forward, throwing the dog down on it's back with me on top. I rolled around on top of the dog, and managed to bring it's head back far enough to snap it's spine and kill it. The dog attacked the wrong kid!! I had extremely powerful arms as a teen from climbing...I was not a big kid.... only about 5' tall at the time, and about 120 pounds, and it was a relatively young but large German Sheppard....... But I was a all muscle, fueled by rage and adrenaline. When that dog took my arm, I was NOT going to let it get away alive no matter what.

The owner saw part of the tussle.... on his front lawn, and called the cops reporting that I had attacked his dog!!! I'd done nothing more than walk down the sidewalk, nothing to provoke the dog that had come charging at me. His view was that I was "trespassing"..... Apparently I should have stayed on the sidewalk..... but the lawn looked like a lot safer place to land. Needless to say the cops believed my side of the story.... the dog after all was loose, not in a fenced yard in a town with a leash law, and my arm was severely lacerated and required quite a few stitches. He was forced to pay my medical bills as well as the cost of having the postmortem on the dog to test for rabies. He persisted in his idea that I had somehow provoked his dog who would never have behaved that way otherwise.
I never heard anything even remotely like an apology or an admission of any fault or wrongdoing....In his twisted perception of things I was entirely at fault and he and his dog had suffered an injustice. It was a lesson in human nature and stubborn stupidity. I didn't live in that neighborhood, and in fact don't recall ever having walked down that street before. I lived many miles from where I went to school, and had taken a city bus that let me out several miles from home but avoided waiting for a later bus. Normally I rode a bicycle but didn't for some reason that day.... probably because it was cold wet and miserable.

I like most dogs and get along well with nearly all of them, but I have a very low tolerance for unacceptable and uncontrolled behavior. People always say "it's not the dog's fault".... meaning the owner is to blame, but I can't shoot the owner much as I would like to sometimes ;-)...... I've killed a number of dogs over the years in the act of attacking livestock, and one pit bull that had grabbed another dog by the neck.... a 22 round to the head does wonders for the disposition of a pit bull
H.W.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Living in the "city that still thinks it's a town", we have lots of urban wildlife. Coyotes and rabbits are abundant throughout Tucson as well as raccoons, bobcats, and skunks not to mention the abundance of hawks and owls and large crows. Even the occasional bear and cougar will wander into the city.

I keep hens, but no rooster (per city ord). I built my coop like Ft Knox knowing full well that my neighborhood is full of coyotes. We have a couple large washes (those are river/creek beds to you wetlanders) near us and many smaller ones. The coyotes use them as highways around the city. I've stepped outside many an early morning to see a coyote in my yard looking through wire at my birds. I keep a pellet gun on the porch, but those mangy floccers are quick and will hop my 5+' wall in a single bound. They don't come around in the day, probably because my dog is on patrol then. She keeps an eye on the birds and enjoys herding them around the yard when I let them out.
Chickens are fun to keep and are definitely predators in their own right. They do look and move a lot like the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park.