Dogs in my Neighborhood Attacking our Chickens

Chicken Crosses Road wrote:

My husband and I live in an upper/middle class neighborhood outside of a small resort town in the west. Houses are worth between $400K and $800K and each lot is between 0.4-1.0 acres. Pretty much everyone in the neighborhood has a dog, which is fine except no one keeps their dog on a leash when they take their dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. This is a violation of the HOA rules.

Since everyone else is violating HOA rules without any penalties, I figured I'd get myself some chickens, which are also against HOA rules but I've always wanted them. Last week, during the first non-rainy evening in a long time, a dog from one of the nearby homes came over and attacked my rooster. A bunch of his feathers were plucked out and he was obviously terrified. A few days later a similar incident happened. A different dog came by and scared the chickens so much that three of them flew out of the 5' high enclosure I keep them in in my backyard. The dog owners rounded up two of the remaining chickens while my husband and I drove through the neighborhood reminding everyone that they need to keep their dogs on a leash. There must have been a dozen or more off-leash dogs at this time.

My other chicken never came back. The thought of one of these stray dogs getting to her is making me furious. I drove around the next night screaming again at the SAME PEOPLE I had yelled at the night before for not having their dogs on a leash. Dog owners can be so incredibly inconsiderate. My husband has promised both of the owners of the dogs that have already attacked my chickens that he will kill their little monsters on spot if they ever step onto our property again. Now they're telling me that I'm the unreasonable one. Go figure.