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my neighours GSD has killed all our pets

21K views 153 replies 44 participants last post by  kiya 
#1 · (Edited)
hello, sorry just asking for advice. Our neighbours keep a GSD. Their fence lost two panels in the storms last Feb, they rang us up on the day it happened saying ''we know it's our fence, don't worry we'll get it sorted etc''.

Anyhow, weeks went past - then the delivery driver let them down, then they were waiting for nicer weather, then they were waiting for a public holiday so they'd have more time to do it & c & c - you get the picture - lots of talk ''no, don't worry mate, I have the panels on order'', ''I haven't forgotton I'm fixing the fence'' and no action - it's their fence but the only thing that stopped me fixing it myself a fortnight ago was their absolute insistance that they most definitely had the materials now and would do it at the weekend

Anyway the upshot is, 5 months down the line, their GSD managed to get into our garden whilst we were on holiday (we only went for two days) and killed all our children's pets (which were hutched). We'd long since stopped putting our pets out in their run because we were worried if the dog got through it could tip over the run, but we (niavely, as it turns out, not being dog owners ourselves) didn't think that the dog would be able to get into all the hutches.

We are beyond distraught. Our ASD son has curled into the foetal position and will not communicate with any of us at all. My daughter is supposed to be sitting significant exams today, and the 5 yr old is inconsolable.


I am SO angry. It's one thing if a dog exploits a gap, or if the wind had blown down the fence in the night and no one knew - but they had 5 months to sort this out, and we've asked on many, many occasions.

Apparantly the complete massacre of our family pets has given them a ''wake up call'' and they will now actually do something about the fence.

So, how would you guys handle this if it were your dog? I'm not familiar with GSDs at all. I am so angry with the owner.
 
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#125 ·
I wouldn't even have told the kids that they were killed because if I didn't know it for a fact then I wouldn't want to upset them. Tufts of hair don't prove anything. How many were there all together and long were you gone again?
 
#126 ·
Hi OP....first so sorry to hear this news. I feel so bad for your family. In reading this story, I too believe the dog didn't do anything and was framed. I have two examples to base my opinion on:

1. The lady down the street from my parents had rabbits. This is a residential neighborhood. One morning she woke up to find some animal had gotten into the cage and eaten the poor thing. She said there was fur everywhere. The cage had been clawed and bitten to get in. She said the cage was a mess from the struggle.

2. My own dogs are able to open doors. Even them knowing how to do this, I find marks where their nails have dug in. Not sure of the type of hutch, but there would be some marks if the dog did this ALONE.

In your earlier posts you mention absolutely nothing was moved from the hutch. Nothing was messed up. I have a guinea pig at home (with four dogs...three German Shepherds and one lab). When they approach the cage our piggy starts running aroud thumping. If you piggy wasn't used to dogs, then there would be more of a mess in my opinion. To me it seems that they were not afraid of what ever took them from the cage.
 
#127 ·
Well, to be honest the last thing I was expecting when I got back from holiday (we were away two days) late in the evening was to be told myself that all the animals had been killed. The children were already into the garden to go and see them before we even had got out the car ourselves, because the first thing they always do is check on the animals. The dog owner was telling us what happened when they all ran back in to find out where the pets were.

I didn't know what to say myself. I was totally stunned that they'd all been killed too. I didn't think to say they were ''missing'' when I was told they'd been killed.

If the dog owner had managed to get hold of us before we arrived home, we probably as adults could have thought things through. I don't know how helpful it would necessarily have been to say they were ''missing'' either, as then the children would only have fretted and spent hours looking for them anyway & just continue worrying anyway for days and days.

Traumatic as it is, at least if they can understand that there is nothing that they can do, and that they can't come back we can eventually move on.

I'm not sure that leaving any uncertainty about it in the longer run would be better anyway. I myself am convinced they are dead now. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise. I don't believe they were stolen. I don' t realistically believe that ''animal rights'' people were here either.

I think the dog has had them one way or another. I still think the owner's daughter came into our garden & opened the hutches. Which would explain BOTH how there is no sign of a dog breaking in to the hutches and why a dog which has never shown any interest in getting into our garden suddenly was. I think he followed the girl.
 
#128 ·
Well, to be honest the last thing I was expecting when I got back from holiday (we were away two days) late in the evening was to be told myself that all the animals had been killed. The children were already into the garden to go and see them before we even had got out the car ourselves, because the first thing they always do is check on the animals. The dog owner was telling us what happened when they all ran back in to find out where the pets were.

I didn't know what to say myself. I was totally stunned that they'd all been killed too. I didn't think to say they were ''missing'' when I was told they'd been killed.

If the dog owner had managed to get hold of us before we arrived home, we probably as adults could have thought things through. I don't know how helpful it would necessarily have been to say they were ''missing'' either, as then the children would only have fretted and spent hours looking for them anyway & just continue worrying anyway for days and days.

Traumatic as it is, at least if they can understand that there is nothing that they can do, and that they can't come back we can eventually move on.

I'm not sure that leaving any uncertainty about it in the longer run would be better anyway. I myself am convinced they are dead now. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise. I don't believe they were stolen. I don' t realistically believe that ''animal rights'' people were here either.

I think the dog has had them one way or another. I still think the owner's daughter came into our garden & opened the hutches. Which would explain BOTH how there is no sign of a dog breaking in to the hutches and why a dog which has never shown any interest in getting into our garden suddenly was. I think he followed the girl.




This would make the most sense to me too.
 
#130 ·
I don't have children but I was a child and had many animals as pets from goldfish, hamsters, chickens, ducks, rabbits, pony of course dogs and cats.
Loosing any of them was never easy, even the goldfish. The horror of learning my grandmother aka Nanny served me my chickens for Sunday dinner. As a 11yr crying my heart out when we had to pts my favorite dog. As much as I'm sure you want to protect your children from the pain and heartbreak of lossing a pet I honestly feel it would be crueler to deny the experiences we get and the love we get and give to a pet.
 
#131 ·
I didn't read all the posts, I just wanted to say I'm so sorry about your pets. Your poor children.

I think putting a temporary fix on the fence would be a good start for now. Hopefully the neighbour will properly fix the fence after this terrible accident. This is not the dogs fault, but theirs.

I hope your kids can open their hearts to some new critters when the time is right. :(
 
#132 ·
Mrs. Doodle2 You did nothing wrong and as an owner of three GSds who have major issues w/ prey drive I appreciate your coming on here to get information on how to deal w/ this issue instead of just hating the dog or the breed. I can understand if you do feel that way. You have been incredibly tolerant of some poorly worded and ridiculous responses in this thread. Thankfully in addition to those there have been the mostly empathetic and well informed responses on this thread. I would hope that this forum continues to be a place to get information regarding GSDs whether a new owner a stranger to the breed or someone looking to make sense of a bad situation.

I lived on a farm until I was 8 and a calf we hand raised named David left one day and a few months later my father said you miss David really? Well your eating him.Im wondering if he's not infiltrating this forum. I get the need to have kids face the harsh facts of life but everyone in this family was upset and trying to figure out what to do w/ their loss.They came here to figure out how to handle it and to see if this could really have happened. Ya know the first stage of grief is denial right the need to make it make sense?Anyone consider what this would be like if you not only had no experience w/ dogs but were scared for your family ?
Folks just because its not a dog does not mean thats its not a well loved pet!!! Grief is an individual process and it hits everyone differently. Children particularly kids w/ ASD who have a hard time showing affection or tolerating touch and like routine would find this to be a pretty destructive thing to their daily life.
While the world may be smaller each country and region is different. In the UK they use hutches . Its not the SW or the extreme NE heck its not the US. Open your minds.
 
#133 · (Edited by Moderator)
Some of the answers- from 'Awe, jest buy 'em anuther, they'll never notice!'

to the "So your kid's Autistic. Yeah Yeah. are striking me as horribly unkind and unhelpful. There is a saying that "one should be kinder than neccessary." Is that such a difficult thing to do?

The OP was not precognizant. Based on ALL her prior experience the pets should have been safe and fine. To blame her for failing to accurately predict the future is preposterous.

Jelpy
 
#134 ·
Some of the answers- from 'Awe, jest buy 'em anuther, they'll never notice!'

Jelpy

That's not what was implied. They'd notice but they'd want to believe the story. Adults lie to themselves all the time and happily believe. Kids would too. They'd know it's not their pets but would be happy they have pets. A story that comes with it really doesn't matter. Each family makes up their own.

If this happened to me i'd be concerned about helping my kids get over it and that's exactly what I would've done. Bought either same animals and make up some story (vacation, went for a walk and came back, whatever) or a diff pet all together.

No one is saying that pets are replaceable. They're not but they're gone and now you need to do damage control instead of dwelling on it.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App
 
#137 ·
Msdoodle2 - I was checking in to see how your babies are doing today. I hope things are getting better for your family.
 
#138 · (Edited)
I was replying to MyboyDiesel, I thought they said Asperger's Syndrome, which many people do not even believe is a true condition, and many people are very high functioning having been so diagnosed.

I have a cousin who is autisitic, and is not able to function in the world at all. I actually understand it quite well. But no kid is happy when their pet comes up missing or dies. It isn't a happy day, and yes they feel grief over it. They will generally get over it, yes, even if it happened all of them at once. What choice do they have? It is one of those things.

There are lots of ways for critters to die horrible deaths. A fire. All pets lost. A tornado, a flood, accidental poisoning, fox in the hen house, and so forth.

I don't buy it that the GSD did it on its own. I don't know how old this daughter is, and whether we should be pointing the finger on her. Not only has the caregiver taken care of the pets without incident many times, she is also a police woman and therefore above suspicion I guess.

If any of these critters had any value, or if you have any animal activists in your area, I think it much more likely that someone went in and let them all out to cover the theft of whichever they stole, or just to liberate the animals.

Of course the kids are hurting. Instead of wasting time being furious with the neighbor, why not figure out how you would handle the situation if there was a fire while you were gone and all your pets died in the fire? It is simply unhelpful for you kids to be fearing and hateful of the neighbor's dog, who couldn't have possibly opened several hutches without a trace. Sorry. Not possible. This isn't the dog's fault at all.

If all the hutches were mauled and the critters gone, then it would probably be the dog's fault. But ANY dog that has prey drive, any hound or terrier would have dispatched these pets, given the opportunity.

When we go from blaming others for what happened, to considering what we maybe should have done differently, our pets have a much higher rate of survival. When we blame others, then, we can put our critters at risk again, and again, because, it wasn't our fault, and we shouldn't have to do anything different.

I guess you are right, though, if you do not have any natural predators there. Because here, if you have a rabbit hutch or a chicken coop in a yard, then you can be furious with a neighbor's dog if you catch the dog in the act, but chances are just as good (better) of raccoons, weasles, foxes, cats, possoms, or coyotes raiding your yard. And then you can't be mad at the neighbor's dogs, you have to be mad at yourself for leaving them unprotected.

It is always all or nothing. Fencing the whole yard would violate this or that, but what about putting a portable dog kennel around the hutches for added protection? Would that violate whatever rules there are? It would make your critters safer. Locks or snaps on the latches would help as well.
 
#140 ·
If you have kids that will be traumatized by the death of a critter, and have a more than average difficulty dealing with it, getting critters that live 4-5 years on average is maybe setting yourself up for some unhappiness.

Depending on how old/mature the children are, I think that maybe you broach the topic with them. It depends on how big a part of their lives the pets were, and whether or not they want to fill that gap with more pets. It sounds like the people are out of town a bit, and have to have people take care of the critters. Maybe now is not the best time to have pets. Maybe after the summer holidays would make better sense, which would give the kids the opportunity to have some space between critters.
 
#145 ·
It appears the OP hasnt returned to this thread. Smart woman I think I'll follow her lead. Tyla I would imagine we didnt create an ally for our breed.
 
#150 ·
I have 2 GSDs that can open doors-however you can easily tell in my house which doors they have opened...so it is odd that there are not marks on the hutches-I think its good that you contacted the police-something in the story does not add up. My dogs have both gotten rabbits who were inside my fenced yard-it happens too quickly for me to do anything about it. If my dogs are outside of my fenced yard I am with them-there have been times when they have gotten away from me. I think that the neighbours had a responsibility to contain their dog and supervise their dog. Yet at the same time I do not leave my house and leave my dogs unattended in my fenced backyard -too much could happen. I realize you are in a different country and have guinea pigs instead of dogs. I am sorry for your loss-Don't think animals can just be replaced so don't think the solution is just get another pet. ...but having pets helps us get through things
 
#151 ·
Sorry, hadn't been back on to check the thread, kind of thought really it had run it's course here, so sorry I've missed some of the nicer replies that you guys have left, but from the sounds of it, probably a useful I missed some of the others!

Anyhow, this is how it's panned out from here:

My neighbour now denys everything, despite telling me this is what happened & tells me I have to ''prove'' it.

The police have visited him, logged the incident and made him sign something around the issue of being responsible for his dog ( so they obviously didn't buy his denial of the whole thing).

Those of you who asked about Peter.....after two days he was able to communicate with us again and could go back to school - which is good.

Unfortunately we have now been given the sad news that his teacher has died suddenly and in unexplained circumstances :( :( :(

He's not up yet, so I don't know how he will be. It's definitely been a hard week here.

Thanks to everyone who has given advice, offered sympathy or asked after the kids.

I'm signing off now, Helen
 
#153 ·
How awful:( I don't know how you guys feel about cats but I've heard they help tremendously with autism and aspergers(sp?). It's not about replacing what's lost but what is best for the kids. The cat can be kept indoors and safe from predators. As far as the neighbors, I had a feeling they would deny everything and that just doesn't help matters, but you must move forward. I hope that things start getting easier for all of you.
 
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