Bad dog.

In the interest of public policy discussion, I am disclosing something here that we’re not particularly proud of, or happy about…. but we had a mishap last night that underscores one of the issues that I haven’t really seen adequately discussed in the whole “bring chickens to backyards in Vancouver” movement. That is: the high density of dogs in this city.

When I got home last night, Brian told me that our dog Charlotte had somehow got out the back gate. She’s not a jumper, so we don’t have to worry about her going over the fence – but the gate was locked only partway and so when she thrust herself against it, the latch slipped and she was able to get out in the alleyway. In the last year, she has escaped about three times – mostly because someone comes into our yard and doesn’t shut the gate, this time because the latch wasn’t all the way in. In any event, her normal pattern is to be gone for about six hours and then return of her own accord.

So we decided to go out for dinner because I had planned a date night for B. and I since we’ve been working so hard and haven’t had a lot of relaxing, connecting time. We rode our bikes down to the Drive and got sushi and then meandered home. Gone a total of an hour.

When we arrived at our back gate, our neighbours from two doors over were looking in our backyard trying to see if anyone was around. They introduced themselves to us and told us that some psycho guy had been in our yard kicking at doors and windows on the house and screaming about our dog and his chickens. By the time we got there, the screaming guy was long gone, and our neighbours told us Charlotte had been in the yard but now they didn’t know where she was. As we were putting our bikes away, our roommate D. came out from downstairs and said that this guy was trying to hurt Charlotte and yelling about how she got into his chickens (we don’t exactly know if she killed any, but I’m guessing she did) and he was going to kill her if he ever saw her again and he was going to come back to our house with his brothers and on and on. He was banging on all our doors and windows, freaking out until D. told him that he was calling the cops if he didn’t get off the property. We later heard from our next door neighbour R. that she also came out and yelled at the guy because he was moving towards hurting our dog. It sounds like quite the scene anyway with a lot of yelling and our neighbours were all out warning us – “Watch out for this guy, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Great.

D. had brought Charlotte into the house so she was there, and acting like she knew she was in trouble but we didn’t see any blood or feather traces on her, nor did she smell of chicken-killing (which is a really distinct odor) – but who knows, she could have just ran off any traces when she was being chased back to our house. We waited up for quite awhile, hoping the guy would come back (calmed down) so we could find out exactly what happened and pay him for any damages because we know how awful it is to have an animal in your care killed. But so far he hasn’t showed.

One thing I do know about Charlotte is that she isn’t a fence jumper and I’ve never seen her dig under a fence or much try to – and she was gone less than an hour and a half when she was chased back – so I do wonder about this guy’s chicken set-up a little. I know from other friends with chickens in both city and country that predators are the major concern and so coop and fencing structures are key to keeping out stray dogs, raccoons, rats, and coyotes – which are the uncontrollable wild cards of any type of domesticated poultry and livestock management.

Which is not to say our dog should have been running around in the first place! It was really just an accident that she got out of the gate, and being part lab (bird dogs, they are apparently prone to chicken-killing) she just did what came natural to her when she came across an (open?) yard with chickens in it. And now we have to be extra careful – keep her in more, fix the back gate latch – because I’m afraid if she gets out again she’ll go right back to that same place and help herself again and then that would really be trouble because this guy sounds like he might kill her if he caught her. (Or kill us, our neighbours were all quite concerned for our safety and I’m glad D. was there to get him out of our yard).

As sad as this tale is, I’m pretty sure it will not be the last we hear this summer of dogs killing chickens as home owners across Vancouver take advantage of new bylaw allowing chickens. We had no idea our dog would do such a thing if she got out, and I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t think their little cutie was capable of the same. As much as it is our responsibility to keep our dog on-leash and in the yard, chicken-owners should also be aware of this as a potential issue (there are lots of strays running around this city at the height of summer) and do whatever it takes to secure their birds. Despite the fact he tried to hurt our dog, I feel really bad for this guy who maybe lost a chicken or two (again, we have no idea what actually happened) and I’m hoping he will let us attempt amends. For our part, Charlotte is going to be under house arrest and only out in the yard when we are with her. We just can’t risk her going after anyone else’s chickens.