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| Lessons Learned the Hard Way |
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| -SSS (continued from 'Goat Resource' page) Sometimes my smaller goats will squeeze their way out between the larger squares in the fence. It had never been a problem because they would always stay right by the fence where their mom's were. Outside the fence is our private drive, then a creek across from that. There are some houses across the creek, one of which is a low-rent trailer. There is a few acres (of ours) surrounding all the other sides of the pen. Well, one day I came home to find a baby goat dead outside the fence. When I looked closely, I could clearly see the work of a dog mauling. Apparently, some 'new' tenants had moved in across the creek in the low-rent trailer. They owned a Chow that wasn't fenced or tied. I couldn't be positive that the Chow was the murderer so I canvassed the neighborhood and spoke to all the neighbors that I knew had dogs that would sometimes get out and come over to my place. I explained that I had a dead baby goat killed by a dog and asked that they would please make sure to keep their dogs on their property. Everyone was very friendly and amiable at this point. One neighbor fenced his dog in a small area and then put in an underground invisible fence to keep his dogs in. The owners of the Chow did nothing. I filed a complaint with the police department so they would have a record in case there was any future occurrences. Later in the week, my 'good' neighbors told me the Chow was outside the goat fence running up and down barking and growling. He went out to chase the Chow off and the Chow tried to bite him. On another day, I let my goats out to browse and I was standing at the gate when the Chow came out of nowhere chasing the herd and trying to cut a baby out for termination. I was able to chase the dog away on that instance. I told the owners of the Chow that the dog was chasing my goats again. The tension is starting to mount at this point. A few months later I came home to catch the dog in the act of mauling another baby. I rushed my truck up and jumped out - then thought better about grabbing a dog during a kill. I jumped back in my truck to use it to chase the dog away. I got a little over enthusiastic and managed to hit the dog on his way home. My blood pressure was up a little bit at this point and I went to 'talk' to the neighbors. I told them I saw their dog in the act of killing my goat and that he would be home shortly with blood all over his chest. That blood was the blood of my goat's baby. This 'discourteous' Chow owner started cussing me out telling me that I was a liar and that their dog was chained in the back yard. I informed them I was calling the police. I went back over to the body of the baby goat and found it was still breathing and in terrible pain. I went in the house and got my .22 and shot it to end its misery The police came over to take statements from both parties. The Chow owners actually told the police two incredibly stupid statements. #1 - "That goat has been dead for 3 months!" & #2. "That lady came over to our yard and took the Chow off his chain and pulled him over to her property to shoot him -- I heard the shot!." Fortunately, our police officer had a brain and could ascertain the situation immediately. We looked around for the dog since it still hadn't come home and we found him dead in the bushes near the road where I had hit him with the truck. When the Chow owners found out he was dead, they were incensed. The police issued a restraining order for them not to approach us or come on our property. After the police left, the Chow owners began yelling obscenities at us from across the creek every time we were outside. They set their lawn chairs outside and sat staring at our goats for the rest of that evening. The very next week, I let my goats out to browse (since the Chow was dead). I was outside with them, but I was working on a project and not constantly watching them. I heard screams and I looked up to see a young German Shepherd dog running through the yard. I ran over and grabbed the dog, (not knowing who he belonged to) and I dragged him up to my house to put him in a pen. While I was dragging him back, the kid's across the creek began yelling - "don't kill him, it's my friend's dog!" About that time, I saw lying in the grass another dead baby goat. That makes three goats now that I have lost to the ignorance of these irresponsible people. I called the police. When they asked the people about the German Shepherd dog, they denied that they even knew where it came from. After the police left, I went to get the little body and dispose of it. As I was carrying it back, these people yelled across the creek "I'm glad you lost another goat! I hope the all die from poisoning!" We took the dog to the pound. We thought about it and decided these people had no reasoning abilities. We had to move our whole pen up closer to our house. We fenced it with tighter gauged fencing so that the small babies couldn't squeeze out. We also put video surveilance cameras about so that we would have evidence if they did come onto our property. When I relayed the story to other livestock owners, they enlightened me the phrase SSS - Shoot/Shovel/Shutup. Next time, I will keep my mouth shut. |