Another tip, don’t lie, if the dog comes down with something, maybe even rabies and police comes back to ask more, hope you remember your lie.
OP, take dog back next and tell owner that if he wants the dog run over or shot, to do so himself, not put that chore on others, is his dog.
Maybe that will sink in.
We have neighbors a mile or so away that had “livestock guardian dogs” What that means is the dogs can free range anywhere they want, including chasing cars and almost causing accidents, but you aren’t allowed to say anything because the dogs are “protecting their territory.” If you say that the dogs were on your private property, that’s ok because the dogs are now protecting your territory as their own. You’re just a Karen.
Local animal control will only pick up a dog if there is a recorded incident of it being aggressive to people.
Eventually one was hit by a car and the owner lost his shit and ranted and raved all over FB for weeks.
That bugs the crap out of me. Those dogs need to be fenced to be doing their jobs, not roaming their 5 square miles they’d like being menaces.
Yeah I know about those "livestock guardian " dogs. I was awakened one cold winter night about midnight by a commotion. Two Great Pyrenees had somehow gotten in my fencing and had a horse cornered and were trying to run it through the fence. I grabbed the rifle but could not find a flashlight so they were lucky I didn’t hit them. They had no fear of me and were not backing off. Livestock guardian - my arse! People seem to think that those dogs just know how to do their job and you don’t have to train them. Well yes you do need to train them. And if you let them run loose they may not come home. Up to this point I have not had problems with coyotes but dogs running loose is another matter.
LGDs need early training and guidance like any dog, to not be chasing livestock and so forth. They are dogs first, guardians second.
Owners naively thinking that those dogs are born knowing exactly what people want them to do are unleashing a hazard.
We need a stronger culture around responsible dog ownership in this country. I have no idea how to do that.
The people in town were also told when complaining on the town FB page, that "everybody " knows where the dogs hang out to chase cars so it is your job to be on the look out for the dogs. I’m sure people don’t all agree, but the loudest FB posts are seen the most.
Time to get political, at the hometown level, to change the community messaging. Partisanship doesn’t have to enter into it. An organized, intelligently and engagingly presented effort for sanity and the best welfare of the animal or issue in question is what counts.
It’s often more do-able than people think. Even if there is an over-emotional mob on the other side who shows up to meetings. It quickly becomes apparent who really knows what they are talking about. And sometimes community boards and councils are grateful for some real information presented in a friendly way. They want to look sane, themselves, to their consituencies, and some way-pointers are often welcome.
Although a big hurdle to local politics is that it takes a LOT of time.
I don’t understand how getting political will help. Attending town meetings is not going to change the general thoughts of townspeople who believe that free roaming dogs are part of the charm of small towns. Most towns have laws against loose dogs.
The issue is that many people in the country believe in letting their dogs free range, despite local laws, and local laws are difficult to impossible to enforce. For example, in my small town, the county sheriff handles emergencies and animal control issues and they very very clearly do not consider a loose dog an emergency unless the dog has bitten people. In some cases the dog has to have been loose multiple times and bitten multiple people while loose.
Our local shelter will NOT take owner surrenders, and they will not take a dog if you say you found it in the street.
Well they aren’t responsible with their kids either, so here we are….,.,
Where I lived before, the country animal control was part of the sheriff’s department, they not only handled animal calls, but alligator calls. They were very responsive. However, the subdivisions where I lived, and near me were new, built on former farm land. The new citidiots would let their aniimals run, even though we were on a busy two lane road. Within a week the dog disappeared, some were fenced in, but some probably had a bad ending. I had to explain to a few people why we heard a lot of heavy weapons being fired (we were on the Alabama side across from the training area at Fort Benning), and why nothing would change. I even had to tell a few military what the noise was and why it wasn’t going away either. The homeowners across the road had land that went back a few hundred feet into woods, and some of them hunted their own backyards. I had to explain that too.
I live in a city now, and we have animal control, but I’m not sure what the county does.
I heard something today that made me think of this thread.
Paraphrased, I can’t remember the exact quote –
“Boundaries aren’t something we can set for others. Boundaries are what we set for ourselves.”
They went on to explain that basically, we do whatever we have to do to protect ourselves, rather than change the behavior of others.
We can try to influence others. We can make a reasonable attempt to create change in them. But can’t control what they do.
What we can do is make whatever change we need to make in our own sphere and lives, to protect ourselves.
Some of those changes may be ones we wish we didn’t have to do. It’s about outcomes that are better than what we have now, whatever that outcome is. And only we can decide which path leads to the best outcome for ourselves.
I thought it was an interesting way of thinking about situations where other people are encroaching on our peace.
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