Neighbor Rant

Alright, I live out in rural Minnesota, it's beautiful and peaceful out here. I love where I live because I am far enough away from the city, yet close enough to have some neighbors, which can be a double edged sword.

We get along with most of our neighbors. My husband has lived on this land all of his life, and will continue to do so til the day he passes. We don't complain to our neighbors about anything, even when they throw parties loud enough to keep us up at night (we got back at them early the next morning lol).

So one of our neighbor's has about 13 kids, 5 dogs, cows and horses that get out all the time... etc. The children have an obvious disregard for safety because they ride their very fast 4-wheeler up and down our main road with no helmet, no shoes, no protection. It's only a matter of time before something happens. Their cows and horses have been out several times, I myself have had to help corral them in. Even that I'm not complaining about.

What really ticks me off is the fact they let their dogs run our neighborhood. Everyone else here keeps their dogs well at hand. Our dogs are either in the house, outside with us, or outside in their fenced in yard. Our yard is so secure that when the neighbors dogs got IN our fence to in pregnant our dog, they could not get back out again(couldn't or didn't want to).

So now that it's nice out, I see these dogs every day, playing in the street (for living in the country, we live on a busier country road), coming over to 'visit' other people's dogs, crapping in our yards (I have a child who plays in our yard, I can't stand dog crap), and yesterday, they attacked our dogs.

I'm just ticked off because everyone in our neighborhood takes precautions to keep their dogs safe, then there are these people who obviously don't care. Each time I see them in the road, I break, wait for them to do what they are doing, and move off the road. Yesterday however, I was so upset about them coming over to our yard, (and it's a walk to get form their place to ours), where our dogs were out, with us being in the yard, and them attacking our dogs. Luckily no one was hurt, but now.. I'm so frustrated!

I've talked to these people, I've even said that the next time I see them in the road I wont break, but I always do, because I love animals and could never deliberately hurt one, heck, I break for frogs for crying out loud! I guess my next step is to call animal control, but even that would be hard for me.

Bah.. I just needed to vent.

Call the local animal control if you have one, if not the local law enforcement. You have more than enough to be upset with. You already have gotten unwanted puppies AND now with the attack it's obviously a question of safety for you and your animals. Not acceptable.

Call your sheriff's department, and start documenting. I used to work in law enforcement--they "should" be understanding, but you may have to keep at them. They'll send out an animal control officer if there is one available.
It sounds like you're out in the country and not in the city limits. If I were in the same situation and those dogs attacked mine on my property, I would have shot them.
I am usually a reasonable person, but I have absolutely ZERO tolerance for people who don't respect other people's property. Dogs are an issue for me because I and my own dogs have been attacked more than once by those that weren't under their owner's control. I've been through rabies shots because of it. My horse has also been threatened by an aggressive dog when we've ridden on the road.
Call the sheriff's department and animal control every single time you see those dogs running around, and if nothing gets done, call the sheriff him/herself.

I am not exactly a bleeding heart. SO.. that being said. Since I live outside the city limits I would have most likely shot the dog. I do NOT tolerate agressive dogs. I did have a problem with a neighbor's beagle crapping by our cars all the time and I shot that one with a pellet gun. It didn't hurt the dog and it never came back..well...maybe it did but anyhow, it doesn't crap by my vehicles any more.

I wouldn't put the crap in the mailbox...thats a federal no-no.
Talking with them probably wouldn't do much good.

I would just get a good bbgun and start popping the dog/dogs when they came over. I would however talk to them about the agressiveness and let them know that if that particular dog comes into your yard again that you will have no choice but to shoot it for your own safety.

I would also call the local sheriffs dept and ask what the laws are in your specific location to avoid any trouble that I may be getting you into

They attacked your domestic animal. Shoot them.

Well, sorry, but I do have to agree with the previous two posts.

Someone has an aggressive dog that keeps coming onto my (not MY, not their's) territory, you have every right to shoot them. At least here you do.

Phone them, and tell them either they learn to keep their dogs tied up securily and off your property, or the next time that they tresspass and put your animals and your children at risk, you're going to shoot it.

Believe me, I would in a heart beat, because I know that my dog and my horses are a hell of a lot more valuable to me than that dog and if they honestly think that I'd just keep on letting it pass while their dog puts my livestock and family at risk....well, they'd get a rude awakening when I called them to haul it's dead body off my property.

If you can't do that, even just phone and threaten.
If it doesn't work, then call the animals control.
You can't just sit by and keep your animals and kids at risk because somebody is too bloody lazy to take proper care of their animals.

I have one that keeps showing up at my house, My husband wanted to "take care of it" but NO... I was yelling no-no please don't shoot the pretty puppy... and then it attacked my hound.... Yeah... that dog is going down!

I'd definitely call animal control. ;) That's horrible! What careless people. & 13 kids?!!! Wow...

I wouldn't go to the point of shooting the poor dog. It's really not the animal's fault-it's all human mistake and the poor innocent dog doesn't deserve to be hurt or killed because no one is caring for it.

Worst case scenario if no one will do anything about it (the proper resources available) then I would try to find a new home and send the dog away.

Here if an animal is loose on your property it is fair to say you can do what you want with it.

I have to respectfully disagree with part of your post. I do agree that it's not the fault of the dogs. However, it shouldn't be Moxie's problem to fix. And it's not one dog. It's five. Five dogs are a lot of dogs. And while Moxie probably has the right to shoot them if they are on her property and being aggressive, I don't know that she can legally confiscate the animals--unless they're going to a shelter. This all goes back to being the job of the sheriff's department and animal control. One thing I know for sure--if the sheriff's dept. Responds and the dogs go after them, they will be pepper sprayed and/or shot.
Moxie shouldn't put her family and animals at risk because the irresponsible neighbors can't control their animals. JMHO