Rural Texas town permits shooting of feral dogs

[The Straight Story]

Rural Texas town permits shooting of feral dogs

FERRIS, Texas (AP) -- A new policy that allows authorities in a rural North Texas town to shoot wild, roaming dogs has riled animal welfare advocates.

The policy, which permits authorities in Ferris to use shotguns to kill aggressive dogs running loose, was implemented last week to curb the town's growing population of feral dogs.

About 50 to 100 feral dogs roam the streets here, said Misty Clark, the lone animal control officer in this rural town of about 2,300 residents.

City Manager David Chavez said Ferris, which is about 20 miles south of Dallas, had become an unwanted pet dumping ground where the released animals breed, form packs and scavenge for food.

Police Chief Frank Mooney said the town had tried other methods with little success.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WILD_DOGS?SITE=IDLEW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[dems_rightnow]

1. And there are so many people

Just wanting to adopt aggressive wild feral dogs! For shame!

[Jakes Progress]

2. I think a better solution

would be open season on the assholes who dump their animals. Wipe them out and the problem won't repeat itself.

[antipode]

6. Is there a lot of recidivism on animal dumping? Somehow I doubt it.

We have at the moment 4 'dumped' animals (3 doggies, 1 cat) almost everyone in our lakeside community has at least a couple. We are pretty much maxed out on how many we can adopt and care for. Shooting the ones nobody wants is, as awful as it is to consider, more humane than seeing them starving or road-killed which are the fates most of them suffer.

[Jakes Progress]

13. Whereas my reply was

a little tongue in cheek, my work with shelters shows that people often dump multiple animals. They get rid of the cats from the pets they won't neuter. They keep getting hot about having a dog until it gets to be a problem. They dump it and then repeat the practice a few years later. These kind of people have very short attention spans and no imagination. Besides starving, dumped animals are often killed violently by other animals. When not killed, they are often chewed and cut and died from infection and parasites. Every dumped animal is the product of a sub-human moron who has forfeited their right to exist. I have taken in or found homes for several dozen animals. The worst part for me is when you see them standing by the road, anxiously looking at each car that passed, waiting for the person to dumped them to come get them.

So, though I spoke a little lightly in my first reply, I often think I could shoot these dumpers. I know that isn't correct or enlightened, but its the closest I come to wanting to kill someone. They are selfish, cruel, and stupid. The world would be better off without them.

[DesertFlower]

3. last night i couldn't sleep and i

watched "Dogtown". they take all kinds of dogs and try and socialize them so they can be adopted.

[Dover]

8. In some countries in southern Europe feral dogs roam the streets

just as sacred cows do in some Asian countries. They are fed by the townspeople and tourists
and are usually very well behaved. They are extremely smart, particularly in how to survive. They will temporarily attach themselves to receptive and kind-hearted tourists. I don't know what, if any, laws exist there regarding these roving dogs or how the locals feel about them. I only have the perspective of a tourist.

[Morning Dew]

4. St. Paul, Minnesota has what may be an effective program

for feral cats. Don't know if it would work with dogs.

http://www.citypages.com/2008-12-17/news/st-paul-deploys-effective-weapon-against-frisky-felines/

[KittyWampus]

5. as a feral cat advocate:I'd rather people shoot unwanted ferals than use poison.Unless there's a way

to trap and tame feral dogs.

I don't know much about feral dogs.

Not a great fan of people allowing dogs to run off their property.

Now here's a local story:

Guy moved into our town with 3-4 huskies and let them run loose as a pack. These dogs were going after people's pets and doing damage. They went to my bosses place and killed chickens and a goat.

Sick owner wrote a letter to the local paper saying people in town needed to safe guard their pets better.

One of his dogs was then shot.

He eventually moved away.

[DesertFlower]

7. here's the link for Dogtown

http://www.bestfriends.org/atthesanctuary/animals/dogs.cfm

they are part of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. they take dogs, cats, birds, etc.

[sam sarrha]

9. well.. i lived in Western TN, someone had a wolf-mix that ran lose, there were probably 20 wolf dogs

'Free Ranging' around our side of a town, maybe 1,700 people.. more than one got sick with distemper or Rabies.. whatever, if you called the sheriff he'd tell ya to shoot em, no animal services and he couldn't shoot em unless someone got mauled. NOBODY WAS SAFE

they'ed attack our dogs thru the fence that cost us $2800 to put up to protect us and our dogs. we had to look out several windows before leaving the house to get the mail, or get in the car. we couldn't walk our dogs without fearing they'd be lunch for the wolves.. big big white shepard like dogs with white eyes and disturbing gazes.

someones child was dragged to the ground by her dress by one of them and a vigilante group hunted them all down one weekend. its one thing to care for dogs.. we have 2 rescued dogs, but if there isn't a community service to take care of your children.. ya do what you have to do even if you don't like it. this is the case in many small poverty stricken communities, texas has a serious rabies problem, i cant blame them.. this isnt a perfict world.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. We had same problem in SF Bay area.

A pack of wolf dogs. They lived, probably were dumped, on San Bruno Mountain, which is very isolated but n the middle of a sprawling urban area. Suddenly one summer day 2 wolf mixes saunter thru my driveway. We would spot them from time to time. The feral cats were disappearig at good clip,a few small neighborhood dogs turned up missing.
The next year, 2 adults and 3 rangy half grown pups in the pack.
Half the neighbors are leaving food, the other have are having hysetrics over possibility of the pack eating a toddler.
In reality these animals were shy of humans. they used to lay around my hillside, about 60 feet from me, we would just look at each other.
Eventually the animal Control folks moved in, shot them all.
This was 2003-04.

And the feral cat trap and neuter program was going strong in the area we lived in, btw.

[pitohui]

10. "a new policy" that lets this one town shoot feral dogs?

i think the folks writing this article (and apparently many of those reading it) have spent too much time in the city

most places in the countryside will allow you to shoot a feral dog -- it's a safety issue -- you don't wait until they're eating the chickens and the small children

i'm a small person and i don't believe feral dog packs should be tolerated in a supposedly civilized society period, if you allow feral dog packs to roam, you de facto are willing to have a certain number of human beings, as real as you are, hurt or killed by the dog packs

i'm not impressed when some huge six foot three male in his 20s wants to protect the feral dog packs

ask the 72 year old lady who isn't even five feet tall what she thinks -- esp. if she lives alone in the countryside or suburbs where these packs might be found

disclosure--yes, a 9 yr old was mauled by a dog in my neighborhood, yes, a childhood friend was attacked and had to get rabies shot (the old fashioned kind) back in the day -- when you allow out of control dogs to roam, you've made your choice about what value you place on children and short people (and you've decided a dog is more important) -- as a short person i don't respect that

[Uben]

11. It's a dirty deed.....

.....but, when you live in a rural setting, feral dogs can wipe out foul and livestock. My brother noticed his setting hens disappearing. He heard a rucus in the henhouse and went to investigate. There he found a wild pit bull eating another of his hens.
By the time he got to the house to get his gun, the dog was gone. The next evening, the same thing happened, but he took his shotgun with him. This time he got off a shot, and peppered the dog with bird shot. He had eaten all but one of his eight hens.
You can't really blame the dog for wanting an easy supper, but you can't tolerate the killing of your chickens. Well ,he didn't kill the dog, he just peppered his butt real good with the bird shot.

Now, here's where it got interesting. My brother lives in the sticks, about 20 miles from the nearest little town. The next day, a guy pulls into his driveway and comes to the door. He said he had been out riding moto cross (there is a well known track close by) and his dog had gotten loose and ran off. He asked my bro whether or not he had seen a stray pit bull. My bro explained to him what had happened, and he paid my bro a $100 for the chickens. The guy told him if the dog showed back up, it was worth a hundred bucks to him if he would catch it and call him. Well, the dog came back in a couple of days, probably looking for that last hen. My bro was able to pen him in the fenced chicken yard, and he gave the guy a call that evening. The guy drove 70 miles out to his house, picked up the dog, and gave my bro another $100!

Every thing turned out okay this time, but in cases like this, sometimes shooting the dog is the only recourse...especially feral dogs. In the country, you have to deal with skunks, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and opossums, all wanting to get at the chickens. My brother has a dog that he rescued, but obviously the pit bull was more than he was willing to take on, and rightfully so!

It's very common for people to drive out to these rural settings and release their animals, thinking they can survive in the wild or find a home. If they have been domesticated for very long, they probably aren't going to make it.

[w8liftinglady]

14. no shock to me...about 8 miles from me...lots of dog fighting here,too

Goes along with the red neck mentality here.