Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

If the dog has actually bitten your horse, and the owner has been warned, etc., I'm afraid you've little choice but to shoot to kill.  Shooting to wound, as I understand it, is considered cruelty to animals.  While you'd be within your rights to shoot the animal, intentionally wounding and not trying to kill could get you in trouble.  A pellet gun could cause injury enough to require vet attention, as could a paintball gun.  Both have the potential to kill.  A pellet gun is far more likely to kill.  A paintball gun will injure.  If it causes the animal to suffer, you're potentially in trouble.  I might try getting photographic proof before shooting if I thought I could get by "one more time."

 

A note on getting dogs to back off:  If the dog doesn't assume a submissive posture, it ain't backed down.  You have to show "calm assertiveness" until the dog (or dogs) show "calm submission."  Until that happens, you've not "won."  If you turn away while the dog(s) is/are still in an excited/dominant state, you've let the dog(s) win.  This happens a lot.  People walk by fences and the dogs are barking like mad.  Well, the people ignore the dogs and continue on their way.  The dogs, though, think, hey, look, we got 'em to go away!  We won!  Yay us!  So when they're loose, they think, hey, we'll just bark at everybody like idiots, and when that doesn't work, they could become really dangerous.