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!