Comments

1
You have to be careful with chickens and dogs. My grandparent's neighbor's dog got into my grandparent's chicken house once and went crazy and killed all 40 of their chickens.

(The neighbor paid for the chickens and there was no hard feelings. And Grandma was able to salvage some of the chicken carcasses and can them.)

But if there's one thing that irks me, it's city chicken owners that let their chickens roam around. I once had to pay a call on a house where a rooster stalked me. If it had been just him and me, I would have shown that rooster how we did things on the farm, but I didn't know if any Nosy Parkers were watching, so I just shooed him away with my clipboard.
2
isn't there a chicken leash law? get on it, Godden!
3
Take his dog away from him.
4
If you let your chickens wander around, some animal is going to stalk them. The fact that his guys has a known animal to blame does not make it that animal's fault he won't protect chickens that would. E dead already if this wasn't a pretty nice dog. If my neighbor was crazy enough to shoot my dog I wouldn't let it out without supervision anymore.
5
Seriously? Loose chicken, unleashed dog, no fence?
6
If your animal wants to kill someone else's animal (and clearly that's what's up), it's the responsibility of the owner of the killing animal to restrain their pet. The chicken is harmless in this one. So what if the chicken wanders on the man's property from time to time? It's not chasing his dog and threatening to peck it's eyes out. He clearly is quite flexible about pets traveling into someone else's yard, why would it bother him?
7
I loved how Charles bolded "the dog is attracted to the chicken" almost as if romance entered the picture.
8
He could also just let the dog out at night, when the chicken is in it's coop.
9
@4 What if it was a cat?
11
Since I wasn't there I naturally have an opinion: dog owner is wrong. Furthermore, that this happened in Seattle and not the rural country means the dog owner is a bad dog owner.
12
@11, kind of a problematic spot for a chicken, as well.
13
@9 A domestic cat will very rarely attack an adult chicken, and even more rarely win the altercation.
14
@12 - Indeed.
15
@13 I meant if the chicken was a cat.

Also, this is a bird dog. He is training the animal to go grab birds. The dog is doing that.
16
maybe it's my rural midwest upbringing speaking here, but if a predator comes onto your land and threatens your animals (whether it's a coyote, dog, sally clarke or cupacabra), every person is within their right to use whatever means necessary to protect their animals. i don't know what Seattle's laws are for discharging firearms in the city limits, but i would not think less of chicken owner for shooting the dog if and only if the dog is on chicken owner's property. if the chicken goes on the dog owner's land and gets killed, tough. keep your damn chicken locked up.

if chicken owner is taking a leashed chicken for a walk and an unleashed dog threatens the chicken, i believe it is within chicken owner's right (maybe not legal right) to shoot the dog.

if chicken owner is walking with an unleashed chicken and an unleashed dog threatens the chicken, let nature take its course. best case scenario the chicken will soon hatch an adorable little of puppy-chick hybrids.
17
@15 ahhhhhh...
18
that chicken could be goading the dog. maybe's it a Richard Simmons chicken and he's just trying to get that damn dog to exercise once in a while. haha
19
So what's the word on what to do when a chicken gets loose? A couple of weeks ago, I saw a chicken on the wrong side of the fence on Queen Anne, but I wasn't sure if it made sense to call animal control. The main threat of a loose chicken is to the chicken itself, and, apparently, the owner's rose bushes. That chicken was tearing shit up.
20
BBQ them both.....it adds to the mystery ... Why did the chicken cross the road????
21
I'm guessing that a raccoon will settle this situation once and for all eventually.
22
Those animals belong on leashes, and within the nice, friendly confines of their local QFC.
23
@16, keyword is "rural". We're in a city. It's illegal to discharge a firearm in Seattle "in a place where there is a reasonable likelihood that humans, domestic animals or property will be jeopardized".
24
What? Twenty-three comments already, and nobody's made a Frank Blethen joke?
25
Do "Stand Your Ground" laws apply to chickens?
26
Chickens can fly over fences.

Dogs can jump over fences.
28
Dog's got the right idea. Eat that fucker.
29
@27, why did I LIKE that so much?
30
"the dog is attracted to the chicken and so leaves the property now and then."

Sounds like a typical dog owner to me. "I can't control that thing, it's got a mind of its own!"
31
I'm with @16. And it doesn't matter if it's a chicken or any other animal. Meanwhile, these fellas should probably just build a fence.
32
These people own too much land for their own good. Somebody needs to buy these two lots and put an apartment building on them.
33
Chickens are locked chickens or are dead chickens in rural France.

Of course dogs chase chickens and kill them if they can, just like cats chase mice and kill them if they can ; doesn't mean they'll eat them, because they do it mostly for FUN. Just like we humans do. Have you never seen human kids chase pigeons ? Young kids would definitely kick them if they could catch them.

As for the training idea, farm dogs learn pretty fast not to chase their own chickens once they've killed their first, but chickens will never learn not to invade the neighbour's land. So in any case those chickens must be fenced, and then training the dog becomes optional. Besides, with no killed chicken to shame the dog into "never again", I don't see how the training could take hold.

As for chickens flying over the fence : any responsible chicken owner knows how to cut just one feather on the tip of one wing so that the bird can't fly.

So, nothing new under the sun.

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