So this sounds like it was the fault of the dog owner, not the person who shot it.
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Iād like to do the sign - EXCEPT - if the neighbors are gun toting nut jobs or have friends that are gun toting nut jobs, you might want to reconsider.
I love the idea of
Then Iād send the flyer and some goodies to the 911 dispatcher, police/sheriffs and AC in case your neighbors are vindictive and hear about the flyer. In my area we have vindictive nastiness. Iāve put up no hunting signs and trespassing poachers have shot them to pieces.
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I donāt remember the full details, but yes the owner of the dog certainly had a responsibility to keep it at home.
I had a similar problem when I lived in Tennessee.
But get this: the next door neighbor with the neglected horses and falling down barbed wire fence WAS animal control! He was the county official who responded to all equine complaints, former head of the countyās mounted sheriff program before it disbanded.
That was a total no win situation for me. I couldnāt do anything about the horsesā starvation and neglect, but I did patch the parts of their fence I could access to prevent their horses from repeatedly getting loose and bringing strangers to my door.
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Ehhhā¦ Pretty sure thatās me. 
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I think a sign on your gate plus maybe letting neighbors know which horses go where, those arenāt mine and thatās not my property would probably be sufficient? Iāve been in the same location long enough that we and the neighbors all know which animals belong to which farm - but ours are also nice, normal people who take care of their animals, and a quick call to say āhey, Phyllis pushed through the fence againā is NBD (Phyllis was an ornery old cow).
If neighbors arenāt savvy enough to differentiate one ābrownā horse from another, though, it might not help you much. I wouldnāt want people thinking that was my sh-hole place, either!
Personally, I need a āslow the eff downā sign. The rate of speed at which certain people (not residents, but boarders) fly down the gravel driveway we share has tempted me to install midnight speedbumps or excavate large potholes.
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I can appreciate both sides on this one. On the one hand, if the dog (and its owner) was a repeat offender, then I donāt blame the person who shot it. On the other, I canāt imagine shooting a dog. I have some terrible neighbors whose dogs have repeatedly shown up on my property, harassed my horses, and even once killed one of my cats on the front porch. When the cat incident happened, we called Animal Control and they came out at once and talked to me and my neighbor. They advised both of us that if the dogs were on my property again, Iād be within my rights to shoot them. But I donāt think I could, even if I were at all proficient with a gun (which Iām not). I did tell the owner though that I WOULD shoot their dog the next time they set foot here. That was several years ago, and the only animals of theirs who have gotten loose on my property since are their horses and a couple of pigs. The horses were annoying, but the pigs were hysterical mostly because my horses were both fascinated and terrified.
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If you ever read my other thread about my neighbors on the other side with inadequate fencing and wandering pigs, cows, dog, alpacas, and horseā¦ I was told I could shoot the dog if it was bothering my animals, but couldnāt paintball it so that it would go away AND the owners would get the point. I felt like this was unfair, but then againā¦ my dogwalker had to text me that my dogs got pepper sprayed once when they pulled away from her and ran over and barked at someone. Consequences, my dudes.
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Err well since the loose ones were actually one bay (brown, I get it) and legit non-fading BLACK horse that was also called brownā¦ no they canāt. I have some horsey neighbors, but they are grossly outnumbered by the non-horsey neighbors and still doesnāt explain why people will turn off a major road and go past two houses and driveways to my place to tell me about horses loose over there. Here is what I mean: I highlighted where the horses have access. The red spot is the first time they got loose and someone drove all the way around to my place? The blue spot is where I think they got out this past time based on how the fence looks and what the person said in the note āby your old barn.ā They have gotten out one other time but I donāt know where or how, but apparently they walked down my street to a little neighborhood area. The guy who came over to bang on my doorbell lives in the house with the fenced yard and faded red truck in the driveway. He has been here at least a year. I feel like the fence the properties is pretty clear, I also posted a picture of the fence where I want to put a sign. Iāve also planted a hedge and hopefully itāll really get rolling in a few years.
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Oh my goodness, I drove past this sign recently and wondered what it was about too!!
Unfortunately, at least in the barn I manage, I have found you can make signs until you run out of printer ink, and people just donāt read/ignore them. Which, to be honest, I donāt get. Maybe Iām just nosy, but anytime any sign went up in a barn when I was younger, I was all over reading what it said!
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Ya, Iām going to have to go with the argument that your house probably seems the least intimidating to knock on. Either that and/or the finders havenāt really noticed the horses in their proper place before escape, see yours and assume they must belong to you also.
I feel like signs donāt usually work for the people that they are intended for 
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I havenāt checked the law recently in my state ā¦ but at least at one time, if animals are on your property, you can keep them. They are yours now.
Someone could shut away the neighborās dog(s) when the dogs were invading, and feed & provide for a few days. If/when the neighbors come looking, there can be a discussion about future action.
In one case where a neighbor refused to keep a predatory, pet-killing dog at home, that dog was corralled by the other neighbor who was fed up with it when it next visited their property. The dog was anonymously re-homed to an animal shelter about two counties away. The person who took it there paid the fee to drop it off, but provided no personal details when asked, claimed untruthfully that the dog was local in origin, and advised the shelter of its proclivities. Left without looking back. Donāt know whatever became of the dog but it didnāt come back.
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Yeahhhhh. Thatās why I was thinking a Property Line sign is simple and bold enough. Sigh. Honestly if the market could just crash in two or three years so I can snap up this property and just raze everything and haul off the crap, I would be happy. The two story house is actually the original farmhouse for all the property around me before it got chopped up, built in 1904, but since I know the methheads who were living in it when I was in the construction phase, Iām not interested in trying to rehab that.
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I understand why someone would do that, but it doesnāt work. People like that just get another dog from some random place and neglect to train or contain the same way. The next dog might be bigger and toothier. No way to win except with dang good fencing.
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Thatās so annoying. Maybe a sign AND a notice to the neighbors? Why hasnāt AC seized the horses yet? Not bad enough? I suppose you could offer to take both of them but Iām guessing you donāt want 2 more horses.
I am not a home for stray and neglected animals, why would I want these? I have my own, I work FT+ to afford mine at the level of care I want and budget accordingly.
As for why AC hasnāt seized the horsesā¦ ehhā¦ it just doesnāt work that way here. Like I said upthread, she did contact him about his thin horse and told him he had to supply supplemental feed, which they did three times and then grass started coming in so they quit, and he had to get a vet out and follow all the vetās instructions, but I havenāt found out if that happened or not and in reality, itās none of my business.
I mean I guess it canāt hurt to try a property line sign. If you do end up with that property someday, then youāll have the added fun nuisance of a lot of road frontage. One of my neighbors down the way has a big pasture right up by the road - people are constantly stopping in the middle of the road to get out and feed/pet/otherwise trespass. I caught one lady on camera (per the request of my neighbor, so she could call the police) who had literally parked her car on the road - one lane each way, no shoulder, car was literally parked in the middle of the lane - and was sitting by the fence feeding a banana to one of the cows. 
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[quote=āTheJenners, post:34, topic:760589ā]
Thatās why I was thinking a Property Line sign is simple and bold enough.[/quote]
You know, it could be that the fatal flaw is that a Property Line sign requires people who read it to have a thought in order to grasp the significance. As in, āOh, so these horses belong to this property here, not that property there.ā
The people who most need the sign may not get the point of it, or get why it is there, or ā¦ get anything, because they donāt think about what it says. They may even just look at horses and not see the sign at all.
At least they are making some effort to help the horses, even if it is all wrong.
I like the idea of both the sign and the notice to the neighbors. Canāt hurt. Maybe do the sign first, judge the effectiveness, and if itās not working then do the notice to the neighbors and see if anything changes.
Good luck, I canāt imagine the frustration of the entire situation.
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Yes exactly, both my VM and note to the first neighbor said thanks, and the FB msg I sent to the other neighbor said thanks as well.
Not just the state of the horses, but Iām just cringey that after all the work, people who drive by think the nasty barn and property is mine 
. Itās a pain in the butt enough that Iām more responsible for this guyās horses than he is, but that people think what, I have a nicely groomed lawn and garden and let my horses live in squalor? I mean there is 2ā of accumulated horse manure in that barn. Yuck.
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