Re: Do you let your dogs or dog run loose?
I don't know if I totally agree with you on this woodrat because you have other animals like fox, coyote, and more that can get through the fence as well. Do you have an electric fence? This is something my brother did when he fenced in his pasture to keep out the wild animals. Of course I know if you have a bunch of land fenced in that would mean allot of wire. Obviously you must have problems with other wild animals contributing to your lose of sheep. I'm not rooting for the dogs by any means but there should be a way to keep the dogs and wild animals out of that area that contains the sheep. You can't be around to protect them 24/7.
Even if you or other dog owners don't quite agree with me, the law does. In fact, Washington law requires the owner of a dog that has killed livestock to dispose of the dog himself, assuming that the stock owner didn't already kill it. And no fence is perfect when it comes to keeping out dogs and coyotes. They WILL find a way through. And yes, my pasture is fenced. I havean electric fenced night pasture that they go in at night and I never have predators there, but electric fence for the boundary lines won't work because the brush and tall grass is constantly shorting out the fence.
And the first dog I shot had already been to my place twice before in less than a year, killing sheep. The owner was totally indifferent about it. The third time it happened I was home and up early getting ready to go fishing, so I saw the dogs killing my sheep and shot one. The law here is 100% in agreement with me. It is not up to me to turn my place into a dog-proof enclosure, it is the dog owner's responsibility to keep his dogs under control.
After ten years of having sheep and having dog attacks and coyote predation for the last four years or so, I am selling the sheep in January. Unless you've been there, you have no idea how heartbreaking it is to clean up after a dog killing spree. Coyotes take one sheep at a time, every now and then, and they eat it. Dogs just kill, and they kill everything they can get a hold of. The last dog attack here damaged almost every sheep in my flock, which at that time was about 15, and killed five pregnant ewes, some of which took a couple of days to die while we tried to save them.
So if you don't want your dogs shot, keep them home. And please don't say, "oh, my dog would never do that." If he's a dog, then yes, he certainly would do that, given the right opportunity.
