I don't know if this is the right forum for this, I couldn't find one better.
On Wednesday two of our dogs escaped their kennel and ran loose while we were at work. When we got home we couldn't find them by searching or driving around. We tied out two others, hoping the noise from them would draw the first pair home.
Thursday morning we called animal control in our area and asked them to look out for our dogs - two purebred siberian huskies; a female that was pure white and a male that was sable (red) and white and both with crystal blue eyes. She said she hadn't heard anything but would keep an eye out.
Just after noon, my wife got a call from animal control saying the dogs had been shot and killed about a mile from home on someone else's land.
The story we got from animal control and the "game warden" kept changing. First, the owner of the land thought they were rabid coyotes and killed them at night. Next the owner said there were four dogs. Next the owner said our dogs were attacking his livestock. One was chasing a horse and the other was going for his chickens in the barn. We were told they were killed the night before. One dog was shot in the chest (the sable/white male), right through his breastbone. The other was shot in the back of the neck (the pure white female).
We were asked repeatedly to verify that the dogs were up to date on rabies shots.
The problems I have with all of this is the following:
- These were dogs that were shy of other dogs and people, and if this landower had come out and yelled "Hey!" they would have scattered and run.
- I can't fathom our dogs romping with other dogs, and those other dogs getting away from someone that was such a good shot that he killed two dogs with one shot each.
- Their bodies were still leaking blood, flexible, and not "refridgerator cold" as I would have expected them to be if they had spent the night in Maine on the ground (it was spitting snow that night).
- Why woundn't the land owner have called animal control first thing in the morning after killing dogs?
It makes me think this guy knew he was shooting someone's pets in broad daylight that morning and just didn't care. There were no chicken carcasses in evidence, no stressed horses around.
The "game warden" told us that because our dogs were "threatening" (chasing, barking at, or trying to play with) the owner's livestock, the property owner had every right to kill our dogs.
Is this true?

