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What a trying couple of days these last two have been! First the hubby gets run off the road on his way to work and tears up our only vehicle but good and then we have non stop rain! To top it off last night something or more like some things got into our new chicken coop and killed twelve of our newest chickens. They were only eleven weeks old and both my children and my husband and I's favorite chicks are gone. We had purchased one silver laced black polish and all that is left are his head feathers. I am ever so thankful we have as many left as we do but the pain is pretty hard to take today. It seems silly to care so much about chickens but they each have so much personality it is hard not to love them. The ones that are left would not eat this morning so I know they are tramatized as I would think has to be normal. I feel so hurt and angry at the same time. We have electric netting around the yard attached to their coop so I was not too worried about anything getting to them especially since we have not had any trouble since a rogue pit bull got five of our chickens last year. Since then we have not had anything even in the yard. However last night somehow the energizer was turned off to the netting (noone remembers doing this) and what ever got in just walked into the coop through the open chicken door that leads to the yard and had a buffet. After speaking with the sheriff we now know that if we see anything in the yard we are allowed by law to use whatever means necessary to remove the threat to our animals. That chore hurts me to think about as well and if who we think is responsible did this should not have to be our chore at all. It seems that quite a few of our neighbors have decided it is just fine to let their dogs run wild since it is so much easier for them not to have to feed and take care of them! They are also all un spayed/neutered which means the problem is only going to get worse unless people who are responsible like my husband and I do something about it. Our plan is to start picking up whatever strays come into our yard and take them to a no kill animal shelter in a nearby county. We really can not afford the gas to make such trips but we know that if we just ignore the problem we will pay the price in the lives of our livestock eventually so even if it means a little less food on the table for a few weeks we are just going to have to grin and bear it. It is so beyond me why people are so irresponsible with their so called pets. My family has always owned dogs and we would never even think about letting them run wild. What is the purpose of getting a family pet if all you intend to do with it is let it go fend for itself. The only thing I can think of is that these dogs are being picked up as puppies and when the cuteness wears off they are cast out, especially if they are so unfortunate to be large dogs who require lots of dog food. If people would only have these animals spayed/neutered this would not even be so much of an issue since most of these dogs started out as "free puppies" given out by irresponsible pet owners to begin with. Unfortuantly though they just keep rignt on letting these dogs breed and breed with not thought to stopping it! In our area they have $10 spay/neuter clincs set up about twice a year but the only people who take advantage of these clinics seem to be people who keep their dogs inside anyway and most of them are owners of small pure bred dogs as well. All I know is that I really wish it were not left up to us to take care of a problem that should not have been ours in the first place, especially when taking care of it is going to hurt just as much. If I can impart one thing on whomever reads this it is this: please spay and neuter your pets! I had to watch my children cry their hearts out this morning because careless people choose not to do the responsible thing and I do not want to have to witness that again! Ask around, there are plenty of shelters and vets who will help with the cost if you ask! |
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