MY dogs blamed for killed sheep

fartyarse

I hope you can help me.

I have a retriever, a german shepherd, and a jack russell. They all spend their day outside in our field out the back. About 6 weeks ago they took a notion to break out, and we found them within an hour, brought them home, and fixed the fence. They got out that once, and no other time.

Two weekends ago a sheep was killed about a mile from my house and another in the same flock was mauled.

The next day the dog wardens came to my house, very rudely demanding to see my dogs, which they did, and all three were, as usual in the back field, happy out. They demanded dog licences be produced within ten days, and asked me to surrender my dogs as there had been a complaint that my dogs had killed a sheep. I politely told them to remove themselves from my property and I would produce their licences ASAP (could not find them at that time).

The sheep was killed between 11pm and 6am (I spoke to the farmer in person, very nice man). My dogs are religiously locked up in their shed from 9pm until 7am every single night, they are never ever ever left out.

I also received a phone call from the community text alert lady who said that it "must" have been my dogs as they have been seen roaming by at least two people recently. It could only have been that one time they broke out I spoke of in the first paragraph.

My heart is absolutely broken over this as we have a neighbour who for whatever reason cannot stand us and I am fairly confident he is the driving force behind this.

Can anyone offer any advice? I know 100% it was not my dogs.

SingItOut

Have you gone into your neighbor and had a discussion about what his problem is? That would be my first port of call. I would also speak of his dislike for you and your dogs to the dog warden. If the farmer believes it wasn't your dogs then surely he can speak to the dog warden to drop the case.

Do not under any circumstances surrender your dogs!

fartyarse

SingItOut wrote: »

Have you gone into your neighbor and had a discussion about what his problem is? That would be my first port of call. I would also speak of his dislike for you and your dogs to the dog warden. If the farmer believes it wasn't your dogs then surely he can speak to the dog warden to drop the case.

Do not under any circumstances surrender your dogs!

My neighbour is not approachable at ALL. Very aggressive man. I live in a house full of women (I'm a woman myself) and would be very reluctant for any of us to approach him.

The dog wardens more or less didn't want to hear about it. Can they return and take my dogs by force?

NotInventedHere

I understand you love your dogs and as this is the case you will have to make certain that they are never ever out at night. It doesn't take much for farmers to be suspicious of dogs and if this suspicion is confirmed by another party they are entitled to shoot any dogs in the vicinity of their stock. As you say your dogs are in at night so you have nothing to worry about. I would also recommend you have a look the Control of Dogs act 1986.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1986/en/act/pub/0032/print.html

seamus

The dog warden does have the power to seize your dogs in order to determine if they have been involved in such an incident, but they do not have the power alone to put your dogs to sleep.

They would have to a judge and get a court order for that. Usually what they try to do instead is get you to legally surrender the dogs (i.e. make them property of the state), and then they can just put the dogs to sleep without a court order.

You're better off grabbing this one by the horns. Explain to the warden what you've put in place to ensure that your dogs are secure and reiterate your night-time routine. Also be tripley-sure that the shed is secure and they haven't found a way out; stick them in the shed during the day and then have a look to see if they magically reappear

There is practically no evidence that your dogs have done anything (presumably the farmer whose sheep were killed, saw nothing), so aside from demanding that you surrender the dogs, the warden probably won't do anything else, because it's a waste of his time. You say the farmer is a very nice man, so I'm guessing he's not the one claiming that your dogs did it. In which case, the farmer isn't going to pursue it either - maybe invite the farmer over and show him your setup to assure him that you're being responsible with your dogs?

falabo

SingItOut wrote: »

Do not under any circumstances surrender your dogs!

I second that

SingItOut

fartyarse wrote: »

My neighbour is not approachable at ALL. Very aggressive man. I live in a house full of women (I'm a woman myself) and would be very reluctant for any of us to approach him.

The dog wardens more or less didn't want to hear about it. Can they return and take my dogs by force?

Have you got a male family member or friend you can go with to speak to him? I wouldn't let his aggression put me off when it came to my pets.

Honestly I don't know but I would've thought they can't unless you have signed the surrender forms.

fartyarse

I contacted the farmer personally and explained that my dogs were getting the blame for his sheep being killed, and he replied saying that he had heard that it was my dogs too but he didn't know one way or the other. He knows I have had dogs for years and years and never had any issues.

I have heard it back from a friend that the nasty neighbour is telling anyone who will listen, that my vicious dogs are "constantly" roaming, and that they definitely killed the sheep.

As I said above I absolutely cannot approach him, nor can anyone in my family.

I will not be surrendering my dogs but I am living in fear that they will break out again, and it's stressing me to absolute bits. I've put down an electric collar shocker fence (I know, I know, controversial, but if it keeps them from being shot dead, it's what I have to do).

fartyarse

SingItOut wrote: »

Have you got a male family member or friend you can go with to speak to him? I wouldn't let his aggression put me off when it came to my pets.

Honestly I don't know but I would've thought they can't unless you have signed the surrender forms.

I have two sons, but they are both very timid, they wouldn't be up to confrontation.

seamus

If the neighbour is spreading rumours, then I would be inclined to make a complaint of harassment against that neighbour. It's an escalation, but if the guy is as unapproachable as you say, then you don't really have a choice. A quick chat from the local Gardai might get him to reel his neck in a bit.

More importantly though, if this issue does raise its head in future, you will have it on record (multiple times if need be) that the chief "witness" to your roaming dogs has been harassing you for an extended period. Which weakens his credibility.

fartyarse

I'll have a chat with local Gardaí and ask them to put it on file.

Thanks a million for your input everyone!

4th horsemen

Hi,

Just wondering how you have been getting on with your dogs?
Has it all dies down now and what about your d...head neighbour?
My worry would be that if he is aggressive unapproachable etc that he might actually one day let your dogs out or poison them or something.
It's a pity you don't know anyone that could have a word with him, even just to let him know that he isn't the only hardman around.
One thing i cannot stand is people like him,

Were the guards helpfull?

fartyarse

4th horsemen wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering how you have been getting on with your dogs?
Has it all dies down now and what about your d...head neighbour?
My worry would be that if he is aggressive unapproachable etc that he might actually one day let your dogs out or poison them or something.
It's a pity you don't know anyone that could have a word with him, even just to let him know that he isn't the only hardman around.
One thing i cannot stand is people like him,

Were the guards helpfull?

Hi there

Sorry for the delay in replying!

He has been putting ads in local newsletters and newspapers clearly aimed at our family, and it is frustrating us all no end. The dogs have been as good as gold since thank God, and he wouldn't have the b*alls to set foot onto our property because he knows better at this stage.

He's billy-big-balls in this area, ever important, he's in charge of the community alert so loads of people think he's a great lad.

The Gardai were really nice about it but their hands are tied in what they can do, except to log it on their system.

kylith

Could you confront him and tell him to either take his proof that your dogs are illegally roaming to the Gardaí or to shut up about it?

If it's obvious that the stuff in the paper is about your family you probably would have a case for harassment. Depending on what's in the paper you could have a case for defamation too.

SingItOut

I thought the farmer was believing you when you said it wasn't your dogs? I did see an article in the local paper here and I did assume it was about the incident your talking about but the farmer was the one talking in the article.

As you have clearly stood up to your neighbour you can easily file an harassment order against him if it continues. I wouldn't rely on the guards to actually do anything

euser1984

What do you mean he put up ads aimed towards your family? What kind of ad is it?

Do your dogs bark a lot or anything?

fartyarse

Sorry, my bad, when I typed "ad", what I meant was he put pieces in the local paper basically saying "Sheep have been killed by dogs roaming in the ********** area recently. Can we remind all owners to please be responsible for their dogs, etc."

He also had it posted in the catholic church newspaper, knowing our family attend every week, but not in the protestant newsletter.

I can't go down the harassment route because he doesn't actually name us in it. It has somewhat blown over now.

Our dogs bark no more than his own dog does.

Arbiter of Good Taste

fartyarse wrote: »

Sorry, my bad, when I typed "ad", what I meant was he put pieces in the local paper basically saying "Sheep have been killed by dogs roaming in the ********** area recently. Can we remind all owners to please be responsible for their dogs, etc."

He also had it posted in the catholic church newspaper, knowing our family attend every week, but not in the protestant newsletter.

I can't go down the harassment route because he doesn't actually name us in it. It has somewhat blown over now.

Our dogs bark no more than his own dog does.

But were his sheep not killed by dogs roaming? Is it not reasonable to ask people to keep their dogs in? Why assume it's aimed at you? Is he a catholic himself? It was probably more obvious to him, and more straightforward to get it into the catholic newsletter.

To be honest, I wouldn't be accusing him of targeting you unless he has specifically named you or given other obvious pointers to you and your family. Otherwise it just comes across as paranoia.

fartyarse

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

But were his sheep not killed by dogs roaming? Is it not reasonable to ask people to keep their dogs in? Why assume it's aimed at you? Is he a catholic himself? It was probably more obvious to him, and more straightforward to get it into the catholic newsletter.

To be honest, I wouldn't be accusing him of targeting you unless he has specifically named you or given other obvious pointers to you and your family. Otherwise it just comes across as paranoia.

The dog warden came to MY house and ONLY my house, upon his instruction (they told me he had contacted them and informed them that MY dogs had mauled the sheep). I am one of several houses where dogs live in my area. So yes, I am confident he is blaming me.

It is a confusing scenario because there are two farmers involved, the farmer whose sheep were killed has not once blamed my dogs, he is a lovely man, very approachable. The farmer who is causing me grief hasn't had any sheep mauled, he's just sticking his oar in on the other farmer's business, because he is "in charge of the community alert".