I understand the necessity of laws which protect livestock and other animals from dogs who are a menace or have a history of attacking, but this was a drastic over reaction. I would be beside myself.
It has also been reported that the owners of the dog had previously made complaints about the shooter, a retired police officer, for taking target practice in his backyard.
[QUOTE=volvo_240;6775737]
http://www.necn.com/01/10/13/Controversy-erupts-after-NH-dog-fatally-/landing_mobile.html?blockID=822231&feedID=11106
I understand the necessity of laws which protect livestock and other animals from dogs who are a menace or have a history of attacking, but this was a drastic over reaction. I would be beside myself.
It has also been reported that the owners of the dog had previously made complaints about the shooter, a retired police officer, for taking target practice in his backyard.[/QUOTE]
the dog was lose?
Tough luck.
if you have a neighbor you know is trigger happy you keep better track of your animals.
Well, my neighbor is lucky no one shot her dogs. I called A/C and he hauled them off. This is after two other loose dogs episodes (same dogs) where they attacked the cows next door. If your dogs go off property and bother livestock, that’s what happens.
I agree the owner bears some responsibility, but would you really want someone that trigger happy in your neighborhoid? Sometimes loose dogs do happen by accident.
don’t let your dog wander
Dog trying to get at his rabbits…of course he just wanted to play with the bunnies.
BANG! Bunnies are safe and predator dog will not attack anyone else’s small livestock.
What part of keep your dog on your own property is so difficult…too many city people who move to the country think their dogs can just run at large.
It is sad and unfortunate but exactly what someone should expect if their dog is at the neighbors trying to eat bunnies and is nonresponsive to being yelled at to leave 
It is indeed very sad that the dog died. 
However it’s not a case of the owners bearing some responsibility. They bear ALL responsibility. According to the article, the dog has been in the neighbor’s yard numerous times. That’s not a “loose dogs happen by accident” issue as much as a “whatever” attitude by the dog’s owners.
The dog suffered due to human error. But the error lies solely with the dog’s actual owners. But everyone will feel bad for them and villify the man using a legal means with a legal firearm to protect his own animals.
Also in many areas in NH, it’s legal to fire your weapons on your own property. Doesn’t make someone trigger happy. It’s just someone who enjoys a legal hobby that others find scary or creepy.
Not to mention New Hampshire is a very serious state for protecting firearm rights and property owner rights.
I do feel 100% bad for the poor dog though. Got stuck with naive homeowners who failed the poor pup and now want to blame others for their own lack of training and care.
I do also feel for the dog owners, it’s sad to lose your dog. I hope they learn to do better by the next dog if they get another one and that they own up to their own blame in this.
Although I’m sure the media will play up the “murdering mad man with an assault rifle” angle…heaven knows the uninformed, biased and incapable of research media LOVES to villify firearm owners/users and “country folk” as backwoods freaks.
The dog was loose, on someone else’s property, and went after his small animals. Sorry the dog’s owners weren’t responsible enough to contain their dog, even after repeated complaints, but the neighbor who shot the dog was within his rights and on his own property.
Where I live is on the edge of a permanently undeveloped property (and never can be). The man across the street is a gunsmith as a hobby. He goes out every Saturday afternoon and works with the guns, and that includes test firing on his own property. He has rights, and my right is that if I object to the shooting or other legal things around here then I need to move. I have no problem with someone who protects their own animals from a predator, and that is what this animal became. I am sick of people who move to the burbs, and let their animals and kids run wild, without supervision, and then complain when something happens from their lack of responsibility. It’s too bad the dog had to die, but the owners should be ashamed of their lack of responsibility. I doubt the neighbor is happy about having to do this, but it wasn’t his fault that people don’t keep their animal up properly, and let them harass other people and animals.
[QUOTE=volvo_240;6775780]
I agree the owner bears some responsibility, but would you really want someone that trigger happy in your neighborhoid? Sometimes loose dogs do happen by accident.[/QUOTE]
when I was a kid there was an article in a national magazine about a guy who had been done wrong by the whole village he lived in. Big sap story, including the pictures.
Too bad I also knew the ongoing saga surrounding that man…he was by no means the innocent victim! he was the cancer in the neighborhood, curtailing and infringing on everybody near by.
Truth be known the poor dog owner routinely let cute fluffy out for a quick run, to play with the bunnies…trigger happy ex cop probably warned them time and time again. Brits are hunting dogs, you knew that, right!
Just check back on COTH: countless threads about the GD neighbors not keeping the MFing dogs contained…SSS…sucks to be the dogs, but what can you do?!
I’m no big fan of loose dogs, but shooting a Brittany for nosing rabbit hutches is ridiculous. I know rabbits are delicate and can legitimately die from just being scared - they freak out, hurt themselves badly, etc. But shooting the dog for it is too much. I’ve had an outdoor rabbit scared to death by some midnight intruder - and it was probably a wild animal, not a roaming dog. SSS is for a dog who comes onto your property and definitely wants to maim and kill, not one who’s being a pest, even if the pestering is potentially hazardous.
I’ve had a trigger-happy neighbor, and it was horrible. I’ve also had neighbors whose dogs were forever free, and I’d have been grateful if their dogs were just Brittanies. Try getting a Great Dane romping free in your yard, then get back to me about the horrors of Brittanies and rabbits.
Sorry, OP, I don’t think it was an over-reaction. Apparently you’ve never been in a situation similar. DH has shot a couple of dogs for harassing the horses- and if my horses get rattled by dogs, believe me the dogs are not just playing. One of those dogs turned and growled at DH when he yelled at it… it became buzzard bait quick-like. Of course we didn’t tell the owner- my hay barn is awfully close to the road and I don’t want anything to happen to my animals. On the other hand, we have also caught a couple to be turned over to AC. One sweet but dumb Lab we caught twice, called it’s owners nicely the first time, not so nicely the second… and they kept it home after that. And several dogs just passin’ through have been watched and allowed to go their merry way.
Vacation1: So do you think that there are levels of life? Ie the life of the dog is more valuable than the rabbit being scared to death?
Your pet dog is no longer a pet when it’s nosing around our critters on our property. Daughter lost 13 chickens in a flash to our neighbors loose dog. He TORE fencing and pulled out fencing staples to get to the birds. It was absolutely horrible; we caught him in the act and I wish I’d had a gun on me at the time. We immediately fenced the outside of our coop with 2 strands of SUPER hot wire at nosey dog height.
I don’t want a nut case trigger happy neighbor anymore than I want a neighbor that doesn’t keep their dogs on their property. One of our friends might be considered the trigger happy sort but he’s had the neighbor’s “pets” destroy his coops and runs. He now lives by 3S Policy: Shoot, shovel, and shut up.
[QUOTE=volvo_240;6775780]
I agree the owner bears some responsibility, but would you really want someone that trigger happy in your neighborhoid? Sometimes loose dogs do happen by accident.[/QUOTE]
The owner bears ALL the responsibility. If someone shot one of my Corgis for harassing rabbits of course I’d be devastated, but by God I should know where they are at all times, too.
My old Pyrenees did wander. It was her job- she guarded my property and the neighbors, and would occasionally wander to our far back neighbors and check in on their sheep and goats. All of my neighbors knew and liked her, and knew she wouldn’t hurt anything ('cept coyotes/stray dogs). If by some chance she were to harass any livestock, I would hope to be called first, but if the dog were shot it would be my fault.
[QUOTE=vacation1;6776016]
I’m no big fan of loose dogs, but shooting a Brittany for nosing rabbit hutches is ridiculous. I know rabbits are delicate and can legitimately die from just being scared - they freak out, hurt themselves badly, etc. But shooting the dog for it is too much. I’ve had an outdoor rabbit scared to death by some midnight intruder - and it was probably a wild animal, not a roaming dog. SSS is for a dog who comes onto your property and definitely wants to maim and kill, not one who’s being a pest, even if the pestering is potentially hazardous.[/QUOTE]
Nosing around? Where on earth did you get that the dog was “nosing around”? The article started the dog was “clawing at the backyard rabbit cage” and was undeterred by yelling and shooting over it’s head. To me, that says the dog was pretty damned determined to get the rabbits, not simply “nosing around.”
Sad it got shot, but that’s the OWNERS fault for having a loose dog that was so ill trained it couldn’t be called off or scared off, rather than the guy who shot the damned thing to keep his rabbits alive.
I’m very curious…those of you who can’t understand why the neighbor shot the dog…do you own livestock and keep them on your property? I’m betting the answer is no.
[QUOTE=GraceLikeRain;6776024]
Vacation1: So do you think that there are levels of life? Ie the life of the dog is more valuable than the rabbit being scared to death?[/QUOTE]
Ugh, I hate it when people take the “oh it’s JUST a rabbit!” or chicken, cat or whatever is not important to them! :mad:
Gonna agree here too. There’s just no excuse for the dog to have been there in the first place. Horrible for the dog, but the owners are clearly at fault for repeatedly letting the dog get loose.
OP says:
I understand the necessity of laws which protect livestock and other animals from dogs who are a menace or have a history of attacking, but this was a drastic over reaction. I would be beside myself.
You apparently dont understand the necessity of laws that protect livestock, if you whine when its implemented. What makes that man’s rabbits any less valuable than the dog? Why does a livestock owner have to wait until he has dead animals before something is done? If a dog had gotten into the dog owners yard and was chewing on his dog, Im sure the dog owner’s attitude would have been totally different.
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