Absolutely. No dog’s life is worth the problems it will likely cause.

As for the owner, they didn’t care enough to keep up with their dog, and there’s no reason they need to know about it.

Agree: If they cared about their dog in the least little bit, it would have a collar with tags showing ownership and vaccinations.
No collar, no owner = Feral

No collar doesn't mean no owner. The type of work that I do allows me to bring my dogs with me to work and they're with me 24/7. I don't keep a collar on them because they're never more than 50 ft away from me for pretty much their entire life. The only time I put a collar on them is when I need to walk them on a leash. One of my dogs is a Corgi mix that isn't going to be a threat to anyone, the other is a pitbull that is the biggest pansy that has ever walked on four legs. I had a third but I had to put her down last Monday.

Well, if they don’t stray from you, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

They don't and I work in the city anyway. The only problem I ever had was once a neighbor of one of my clients ran outside and told me that he was going to shoot my dog if it got on his property. I told him to go get his gun that we will wait for him. The house wasn't even his; it belonged to his girlfriend and he was just the flavor of the year. She was old and kept younger men for live in boyfriends but normally kicked them out after about a year. None of them worked and she would support them. He was a California transplant to TX and would yell at me for all kinds of nonsense twice per week when I showed up and he knew everything. He even called the police on me and made something up to get them there and once they were there he told them that he was really calling because he thought my plates were fake and he only fessed up to that once I pointed out to the officers that I had been in view of 4 security cameras and could get the recording from them in a few minutes.

And what do you do about a dog with collar chasing deer on the lease?

Call HR and schedule a reeducation seminar for the dog and it's owner called "Running deer is bad...and illegal" Initiate progressive discipline.

Step one, issue a verbal warning, in writing of course.

Step two, initiate and complete the reeducation process. Steps 1 & 2 can be done concurrently.

Make them watch the whole 90 minute power point presentation, then take and pass (80% correct to pass) a multiple choice test to confirm that the message was understood.

Make sure to print out the certificate of completion, suitable for framing of course.

Problem solved.

If by some miracle the problem persists, proceed to step 3, which is the first written warning, followed by the second written and final warning.

If the problem persists, then initiate and execute termination. But it won't come to that as education is the answer to all of our challenges.

Thanks to genius, Rick Perry , it is illegal in TX to shoot a stray dog (or cat) unless you felt that you, your pet or your livestock are in danger of being harmed by it. Keep in mind, you do not have to have been harmed. You only have to believe you/yours was in danger. If/when there are no witnesses to say otherwise, I promise the dead (or even wounded) animal won't contradict you.

What dog?

#330 Conibears don't care if they have a collar on or not.

You’re not keeping up.

Do not, I repeat do not, shoot a border collie on a sheep/goat ranch.

Shot a nice greyhound on our property couple years back, it was chasing deer, had a collar, don’t care, keep your animals put up, hung the collar on the fence post, it was gone two days later, hope they learned a lesson

Pack of feral dogs came at me once. I didn't have my gun. In a fit of genius or, more likely, insanity, I growled as loud and angry as I could and ran right at them. They made an immediate about face. I don't know how "feral" they were but it worked. It has worked with aggressive dogs a time or two since. Sometimes giving them the unexpected can have positive consequences. Though, probably not always.

The same is true about many parents and their kids.

I dated a girl back in high school who's father was looking for the dog that was attacking their cows and horses. We all came home from church one morning and their German Shepard had a calf down in the pasture. First dog I have seen shot by a deacon still in his Sunday best. Just because it is a well fed pet, doesn't mean it won't attack farm animals.

Family in east Texas just had an issue with a Pack of wild dogs. 6 or 7 dogs, (2 looked like coyote mix) killed their Llama. Friend of theirs, with Night vision gear, killed 3 few nights later over the carcass. Another family member killed 1 or 2 more few days later. Years prior, he had issues with wild packs killing calves. They live near the Sabine River bottom and seems folks are always dropping off/abandoning dogs out there.

Or it's own human family, especially youngsters.

Canines are predators and will chase anything that runs. My little Corgi will chase you and try to herd you if you run away. I had a German Shepherd mix once that was raised up with a billy goat kid and they were best friends. They chased each other all over the pasture for fun but from the outside it would have looked like the dog was trying to kill the billy goat.

I had a lease a few years back that was backed up to a subdivision, and we had a pack of around six dogs with an alpha male
German Shepherd that led the pack of mostly mid size dogs down to a couple yappers.
You could hear them from a long ways off barking and baying.
I had a doe run past me that looked like it's eyes were about to bulge out of her head and tongue hanging out, shortly followed by the pack.
I never went out there without my Winchester even just to check feeders.
One day I heard them coming toward me and I froze, and as they came out of the brush they started growling and exposing their teeth as they moved toward me.
Like I said, I carried my 30-30 model 94 and I discouraged them!
I would never go into the woods without a firearm!
You want the carp scared out of you, just have a pack of wild dogs come up on you!
Very rarely will a wild animal attack a person for no reason.......Not a feral dog, because you become sport!

'Had some feral dogs in our old neighborhood. They were taken care of quietly before things got out of hand. My dad's dog was killed by wild dogs; Austin 1920s.

I've seen these guys in Zimbabwe more than once. True wild dogs. Pretty cool to watch, actually.

We were on a lease that backed up to a subdivision and there were dogs there. More than once they would come on the property and chase the deer. I never shot one but there were several killed. I think if cattle had been on the place they would have chased them as well.

It’s usually pretty easy to get a sense of the nature of the dog. We’ve had plenty of loose dogs on the ranch over the years. 90% are lost, excited to see people (many are scared at first and need some time to warm up to you though), and we’re taken to the county shelter. Had several follow ups from the owners thanking me for not doing what many on here would advocate to do.

Doesn’t mean I won’t protect myself or others from a violent dog, but the little bit of time it takes to evaluate and handle the dog is worth the effort.

Same goes for livestock guard dogs on those same properties.