So, I recently purchased my dream, 80+acres of isolated east Texas land and built my house / shop. My house sits atop a hill overlooking a 40ac hayfield. Every night I watch deer in my field, occasional coyote and just busted two pigs and had fresh pork loin cooked over the 4th. However, somewhere nearby someone owns two German Shepard’s and weekly I catch them chasing deer (not a guess I literally see the deer and the dogs chasing on it’s heels). It infuriates me. I don’t know who the owners are, or I would consider “confronting” them. I have small kids that play outside and this is a bit unsettling. I think but am not sure they they might have tracking collars on them.

What’s is the Texas law about handling this and everyone’s off the record about handling it????

First call the GW in your area. Maybe notify Sheriff.

Call the game warden, couple weeks go by and nothing changes...pull out the rifle and dig a hole.

SSS

Yup
I'm a huge dog lover but will absolutely NOT put up with that.

I agree with contacting the GW and if he does not get back to you within 48 hours then it is time to take action.

Contact your GW and see if you can get some relief or work with the GW in getting relief.

Otherwise, the deer are not your property. So...

Texas Penal Code § 42.092. Cruelty to Nonlivestock Animals


(a) In this section:

(1) “Abandon” includes abandoning an animal in the person's custody without making reasonable arrangements for assumption of custody by another person.

(2) “Animal” means a domesticated living creature, including any stray or feral cat or dog, and a wild living creature previously captured.  The term does not include an uncaptured wild living creature or a livestock animal.

(3) “Cruel manner” includes a manner that causes or permits unjustified or unwarranted pain or suffering.

(4) “Custody” includes responsibility for the health, safety, and welfare of an animal subject to the person's care and control, regardless of ownership of the animal.

(5) “Depredation” has the meaning assigned by Section 71.001, Parks and Wildlife Code .

(6) “Livestock animal” has the meaning assigned by Section 42.09 .

(7) “Necessary food, water, care, or shelter” includes food, water, care, or shelter provided to the extent required to maintain the animal in a state of good health.

(8) “Torture” includes any act that causes unjustifiable pain or suffering.

(b) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(1) tortures an animal or in a cruel manner kills or causes serious bodily injury to an animal;

(2) without the owner's effective consent, kills, administers poison to, or causes serious bodily injury to an animal;

(3) fails unreasonably to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter for an animal in the person's custody;

(4) abandons unreasonably an animal in the person's custody;

(5) transports or confines an animal in a cruel manner;

(6) without the owner's effective consent, causes bodily injury to an animal;

(7) causes one animal to fight with another animal, if either animal is not a dog;

(8) uses a live animal as a lure in dog race training or in dog coursing on a racetrack;  or

(9) seriously overworks an animal.

(c) An offense under Subsection (b)(3), (4), (5), (6), or (9) is a Class A misdemeanor, except that the offense is a state jail felony if the person has previously been convicted two times under this section, two times under Section 42.09 , or one time under this section and one time under Section 42.09 .

(c-1) An offense under Subsection (b)(1) or (2) is a felony of the third degree, except that the offense is a felony of the second degree if the person has previously been convicted under Subsection (b)(1), (2), (7), or (8) or under Section 42.09 .

(c-2) An offense under Subsection (b)(7) or (8) is a state jail felony, except that the offense is a felony of the third degree if the person has previously been convicted under this section or under Section 42.09 .

(d) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:

(1) the actor had a reasonable fear of bodily injury to the actor or to another person by a dangerous wild animal as defined by Section 822.101, Health and Safety Code ;  or

(2) the actor was engaged in bona fide experimentation for scientific research.

(e) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (b)(2) or (6) that:

(1) the animal was discovered on the person's property in the act of or after injuring or killing the person's livestock animals or damaging the person's crops and that the person killed or injured the animal at the time of this discovery;  or

(2) the person killed or injured the animal within the scope of the person's employment as a public servant or in furtherance of activities or operations associated with electricity transmission or distribution, electricity generation or operations associated with the generation of electricity, or natural gas delivery.

(f) It is an exception to the application of this section that the conduct engaged in by the actor is a generally accepted and otherwise lawful:

(1) form of conduct occurring solely for the purpose of or in support of:

(A) fishing, hunting, or trapping;  or

(B) wildlife management, wildlife or depredation control, or shooting preserve practices as regulated by state and federal law;  or

(2) animal husbandry or agriculture practice involving livestock animals.

(g) This section does not create a civil cause of action for damages or enforcement of the section.

GW will have you call the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office "should" make contact with the dogs' owners. They will be warned the 1st time to keep their dogs confined on their the property. The next time they will be ticketed. The third time it's your hands with your favorite rifle.

If "something" ends up happening to them dogs, cut off the collars and dispose of them appropriately.

Just do it yourself. The more people you get involved the worse it gets. You have already messed up by putting it on here.

Agreed.

My grandad had occasional issues with neighbors dogs chasing his livestock. First offense was taken care of with a 12ga load of rock salt. Second offense was a load of buck shot.

He is right, if anything happens to those dogs, you will get blamed. Those dogs belong to someone, they can be more important to the owners than their wife or children. Been there and done that..

I think you need a couple of "goats" to run that wheat field.

As others said get the GW and Sheriff involved first. We had something very similar going on and even found outs who's dogs they were. Sheriff warned them, multiple times. It kept happening and the Sheriff one day shrugged his shoulders and said "handle it" so we did.

Agree with this. Handle it and tell no one. We have issues with feral dogs thanks to people dumping them, they form packs and are almost always aggressive, even towards people. We see them chasing cattle they get shot. We see them chasing deer (I mean cattle) and they get shot. SSS.

Right, committing a class A misdemeanor or a felony is best not done after broadcasting it on the internet.

Years ago I observed The most gruesome after math of dogs killing a deer. I was snow shoeing in the woods with 2.5 foot of snow on the ground when I came across tracts of a deer an several dogs moving in the same direction. I found it interesting and I followed. after about a 1/4 mile I observed tuffs of deer hair scattered along the trail. about 1/8 mile further I started seeing some blood spray in the snow. The blood became more and more disbursed over the snow. After another 1/2 mile blood was every where and I came upon a doe that had bled out from the bites it had received over and over on her flanks where huge chunks of meat were torn out. As the snow was crusted and the doe was breaking through the dogs were able to run on top and over took the poor doe, I came upon her just after the kill. This wasn't yotes as we didn't have them in this area of NJ at the time. the killers were a group of dogs who really didn't eat the doe but left her after the excitement of chase was ended. Being torn apart while alive is certainly a gruesome way to go and is something I find inexcusable from domestic animals. Owners have a responsibility to make certain Fido is not performing these horrendous acts.

Pics of dogs that killed my piglets last year. Note pic of dog with blood on face, legs, etc I run cameras on my place. You need to SSS and never tell anyone.
Every problem I've had with livestock is from domestic DOGS! If you don't fix it it will never stop.
Your choice.

At this point, after posting on a public forum, I would video the dogs, call GW and sheriff and let them watch the video. Let them handle it at this point.

Why do these questions need to be asked?

Go solo and fix the problem. If you involve law enforcement and the dogs come up missing, they'll be looking at you.

Totally unrelated post but Texas has coyotes and 330 conibears are great for them if they cause problems too.

Posting the question or story anywhere is first mistake. Shuda dealt with it and moved on.
You must still have plenty city in you cause country folk deal with things differently
Good luck. You probably gonna need it now.

People sure have gotten soft, anymore. It wasn’t that long ago that this would have just been handled.

Unlike coyotes, dogs kill for sport and will continue to do so until most of your deer are chased out of the area or dead.
Your first and fatal mistake is telling anyone because it will come down on you hard.
Count them!...S S S!

I would give a pass if it's something that happens rarely, but if it's an ongoing thing, and you can't chase them away or they turn aggressive toward you all bets are off.
Talking to anyone usually doesn't work, and once they are alerted and the dogs end up missing even if another landowner handled it themselves, you are going to be the prime suspect like it or not!

Seems folks are always asking others to make their decisions today.

I still recall back in the 70-80s, the ranch foreman of a large ranch (for the area) had a championship bloodline Airedale (ranch owner's dog that took up with the foreman) would carry that dog everywhere he went, everyone around town knew "Prince" from the various coffee shops, drug stores, feed stores, etc. He was a very solid cow working machine as well. One day the foreman was driving thru the pasture when Prince launched out of the back of the truck, passed the truck and jumped on a nanny Spanish goat, killing her, then took off for another one and drug her down. The foreman was forced to pull out his old beat up .222 and shot Prince on the spot. Yes, I was riding in the truck with him and was in total shock as Prince was by his side all the time. When I asked WTHeck, he said "once they get blood in their mouth, they won't stop killing, it had to be done" ... He loaded Prince in the bed of his truck, took him home and buried him in the yard. The LO understood and later got another Airedale, that also took up with the foreman.

Back when I was growing up in the late 50's and 60's, in every rural ranch town you would see pickups with gun racks and rifles in those gun racks, even in the town square where they would go to the courthouse, park out by the curb and go inside to handle business.
Those guns were used not just for coyotes, but to protect their investment from anyone or anything.
We have become too soft over the years.

Hey, the guy is just asking for input, for all that have suggested this guy is soft, or city (like that's some kind of insult) or can't make his own decisions, seriously, vilifying a guy for asking for input.

To the original poster, I say this is a tough issue, especially for a new landowner, probably absentee, that has to balance neighbor relationships, which is one of the most important values of people who really are "country" or solid, as opposed to soft. That being said, both sets of advice, going through law enforcement or just handling it are sound and good on you for getting input, so that you can and will make your own decision and take your own action.

Thanks man, I appreciate you seeing my post for what it was. Didn’t expect all the “hard old timers” to get so tough pounding out replays sitting behind their keyboards and monitors.....I am sure if asked in person, responses would have been different. Believe the ability to be so hard is easy when not standing in front of people having a good ole conversation........man we sure are tough these days.

I’ll just leave this right here.

....”hard old timers”
Seems there’s a lot you don’t know about, in more ways than one.
Carry on

Yep, there is a lot I don’t know, despite being on God’s green earth for 42 yrs.....isn’t that kinda the point of forum discussions....to learn from others? Maybe I am dumb on this too.......

I will tell anyone to their face what I do to dogs on my property. Be it anyone on here or a GW or any LEO. I have been all through the asking LEOs and even the owners of dogs. LEO's tell me to handle it. The dog owners deny it was their dogs. So now if I see a dog on my property it is either dead or well shot at.

Everyone’s a keyboard warrior, some better’n others. 99.99% of the time, I will only write something I’m willing to say to their face, especially if I don’t know that person. But I’ll joke 100% of the time

To me there is a difference between wildlife and livestock.
Also a difference between a neighbors pet and feral or dumped & abandoned dogs.

Good neighbors & pet owners control or contain their pets, even in rural environments.
If you force me to control your pet that is human aggressive or chasing / harassing my livestock on my property I will, my method is permanent.
If there is a problem I take the dog home, explain the situation, in no uncertain terms tell them what will happen if the dog returns to chase or harass livestock.

I have neighbors with dogs that wonder our property, do no harm, chase nothing but the occasional rabbit, squirrel, swim in the ponds, come visit in a very friendly manner.
I wouldn't shoot those dogs for doing what dogs do.

Livestock, wildlife chasing or human aggressive feral or dumped abandoned dogs don't get the same consideration.

If the dog owner contains or controls their dogs there won't be any problems, if you force me to do it, I will, my way.

SSS

I believe that education is the key to any situation.

Have you tried to counsel the dogs? Do they understand how hurtful their conduct is to the deer and those who witness such behavior? Perhaps you could enroll them in a good 12 step program to help them correct their behavior.

On all of my feeders i have posted "TANSTAAFL" This stands for There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I figure that it stands as a warning to all literate deer and hogs who use those facilities, therefore I am only shooting the illiterate deer and hogs.

I'm all about fair warnings

And by the law, there is. You/I don't own the wildlife. The State does. You/I do own the livestock.

Dead lol

Dang that's funny!

Well said, lots of this nonsense like that going on lately on this board.

No tuff guy talk here bud lol. Been down that road of asking around for the owner etc, and then later having fingers pointed at me. I don't like shooting dogs.


Do what you think is right. If I know who the dogs belong to I'll talk to the owner first, of course. Big difference between that and aggressive feral dogs like we have at times. We even had one of them chase one of our guys up into the bucket of a tractor while he was taking a leak. He didn't have his pistol on him and that dog kept him in that bucket for over an hour, showing teeth/growling, he wasn't playing. Sure wish people would be more responsible and stop dumping them, can't blame the dogs for trying to survive but not putting up with them either.

Thanks man, I appreciate you seeing my post for what it was. Didn’t expect all the “hard old timers” to get so tough pounding out replays sitting behind their keyboards and monitors.....I am sure if asked in person, responses would have been different. Believe the ability to be so hard is easy when not standing in front of people having a good ole conversation........man we sure are tough these days.



Free men own guns...Slaves don't!

Never ask a question you do not want a blunt answer to.

Never ask a question you do not want a blunt answer to.

That's not a blunt answer, it is a statement. And its type of statement is a judgement. I know, this thinking and communication stuff is hard, but keep experimenting and maybe you can get better at it.

A man’s gotta do ...you know the line. And I have...on occasion...and will again if necessary. At least that’s what my friend says.

this cannot be pointed out enough

with DOMESTICATED LIVESTOCK what the owner can do is much different than wild game

IE the owner can defend the health and safety of their DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK after they have made prior notification of the dogs attacking their animals

with wild game that will never be the case (unless the law changes)

No tough talk, or trying to hurt anyone's feelings or pounding a chest.
The OP asked "what is everyone's off the record about handling it????"
Seems he asked, and if you ask, you leave yourself open to whatever answer you get whether you like the answer or not! You ask for free advise you just have to pick through the weeds.

This comes in very handy when a person SSS.

SSS

Just remember that in a low fence situation, the landowner doesn't legally own native wild game.

The height the fence or lack of any fence does not change who owns the native wildlife in Texas.

3 pages?.....It's not that complicated!

It is for some.

what was the question again ?

Aren't you here on page 3 as well?