Quote:
Originally Posted by Shibadog
Let me add that I am a confirmed dog lover and have had one in my life as long as I can remember. Shooting a dog is/was a last resort thing for me. Those I encountered all those years ago were feral and very aggressive-and they were NOT afraid of people. We tried yelling, throwing rocks/sticks etc ., all to no effect. Hence the reason we retreated. When we went back, armed, we had a second encounter-much like the first except for our rifles. These were NOT “somebody’s pet” (more like Cujo��)
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You don't have to explain yourself to anybody, and frankly anyone who would accuse another of shooting an otherwise friendly animal without due cause isn't worth responding to.
In my experience, the sort of folks who take the most offense towards others defending themselves against attacking dogs are the sort who has one of those extremely hostile, anti-social dogs who will attack any person or animal they come into contact with, so they're bothered by it because it could happen to their dog one day, but they would rather pretend that their dog as well as all others like it are sweet, innocent, harmless creatures, and that it only acts the way that it does around strangers because it can "sense" that every other person or animal it has ever responded to with hostility was dangerous.
Nobody else is that unreasonable nor accusatory towards those who have so much as expressed a perceived need to defend themselves against feral dogs, much less had to do so.
Rest assured, you did the right thing, the responsible thing, and frankly provided a public service by taking care of dangerous wild animals who almost assuredly would have gone on to attack someone. Other folks would have probably just left them be with zero regard for the safety of others, but you went all the way back out there, tracked them down, and euthanized them in a humane fashion.