Dogs running deer on my hunting land

[racer038]

I'm looking for the right thing to do, as opposed to what I want to do.  I have a nice 100 acre plot of wooded land.  I have owned it for over 10 years.  Throughout the years, we have had occasional issues with dogs and feral cats being found on the property.  The cats are easy pickins.  The dogs, not so much as they always seem to be running. These predators are in addition to coyotes, foxes, and bobcats.  This spring we caught red handed a pack of dogs having just killed a wild turkey on nest.  Previously we have seen dogs walking through the woods with deer legs in their mouths.  Of course we do not KNOW that the dog actually killed the deer, it might have scavenged a road kill or a deer shot and never found.  Also this spring we witnessed the pack of dogs chasing deer.  This week the pack was seen chasing deer again.

I recently got a trail camera picture of the three dog pack and posted it on Facebook, tagging some of my neighbors.  It turns out the three dogs belong to a neighbor that actually lives adjacent to my property on the back side of the property where we rarely go.  Therein lies the moral dilemma.  My gut tells me to dispatch these predators just as I would a coyote or feral cat.  But good neighbors are a great asset to someone that has unoccupied remote property.  Do I give them a heads up?  Do I let them know I'm going to kill their dogs?  Am I in the right or am I being a royal Dick?   

[mountainmoma]

The first step seems obvious,  how in the world would your neighbors know you have an issue if for the past more than 10 years it hasnt been an issue ? They think that no-one cares about dogs running around on open property.  Yes, let them know that you dont want dogs on your property and to please keep them off of it.  These are peoples pets and no-one has ever raised an issue about them talk to your neighbors

Sounds like you may already have been killing their cats, or potentially.   Any reason you are killing cats on sight ?  I know they are not a predator for anything you are hunting, they are not canines, they are in the same niche as the wildcats, the bobcats, are you killing them too ? Both cats are keeping down the disease carrying rodent population.  Same for foxes, why are you just killing all carnivores ? I was taught that we were supposed to eat what we kill, and otherwise to only kill what was a threat to lives or livelyhood

As far as your last question, even though you did ask, it would go against our forum rules to answer, I think....

[Mr. Bill]

After some pondering... I don't think this topic can go anywhere good.  We're in borderline-legality territory here, and I know the laws vary with location, but shooting stray dogs and cats is probably legal only under narrow, limited conditions.

It's also a good way to get your neighbors furious with you.

We've already got another topic on how to get rid of stray cats without killing them, and it's got tempers running pretty high.

Now in this topic we're talking about "I'm already shooting the kitties, should I blast the doggies too?"  So, sorry to be all but the topic is locked.