Georgia Wild Dogs

[dogknot]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8360394

[Lionheart]

Grizzly.... That is grim..

I'll never forget being chased down by a huge dog. I was in 4th grade at the time, very small kid. As I was running, (as fast as I could) my heals of my shoes were contacting the bottom jaw of this dog. Must have hurt. That was how close he was, and man, it was one scary moment. He was a large German Shepard and was known as a pretty wild dog, living in a backyard where if you walked by, he went balistic. Somehow, he got out that day, and I happened to be coming home from school at the time. Glad I didnt get caught by this thing.

[djscoo]

When my dad was in third grade, there was a neighborhood dog that all the kids were scared of. One day he was walking home from school, and he thought he heard the dog's chain jingling right behind him so he started running. He ran all the way home and slammed the door behind him before he realized it was just the change from his lunch money in his pocket.

[OBIO]

Such a tragedy.

When Dad was a kid, back in the mid-40s, there were so many feral dogs roaming the hills of the Southern Ohio county that he grew up in, that the county initiated a bounty on them. For every dog tail that you presented to the county commissioner's office, you got 25 cents. Dad and his friends made a tidy bit of money hunting feral dogs. The program was canceled after people started calling police and filing reports of finding the family dog dead with its tail cut off.

When I was a kid, growing up in the same Southern Ohio county, there were still a good number of feral dog packs...the largest one out in our neck of the woods. This pack was lead by a HUGE black German Shephard mix, and had a decided taste for live stock. And on a few occassions, the pack had acted in very aggressive ways toward people. Whenever I went into the woods, which was every day, I carried a rifle with me....to protect myself against the pack if need be, but mostly to pick off members of the pack when I could get a clean shot.

OBIO

[Willy]

When I was a teenager in SW Arkansas, we had a feral dog problem. I caught a bunch in my mom's goat pasture and ran out of ammo in the gun shooting them. Had one big old chow mix running at me when the gun went click and drew it back like club, but that dog turned away at the last second, giving me a chance to reload. I killed about 10 of them that day though and set traps for the rest of them.

[RickN]

We have some problems with feral dogs here in Oklahoma too.

A few years ago while fighting a grass fire close to the farm we counted about 100 dogs run from the tree line in one spot alone.

The problem is not the dogs fault but the stupid people that bring the family pet they no longer want to the country and dump it. The smaller dogs and most of the cats get eaten, the rest that are big enough to defend themselves end up in the packs and can be a threat to livestock, wildlife and people.

I have had to shoot several feral dogs through the years, but to tell the truth I would rather shoot the a$$holes that dump them. If you do not want your pet find it another home, take it to a rescue, or have it put to sleep. Do not dump it where it may starve to death, have to fight for it's life, or become a problem for others.

[Willy]

I agree totally Rick. We've got an animal dumping problem here, but not to the point of having packs of feral dogs yet. Right now, it's just a few dogs here and a few there. The police in town shot one that attacked a kid a couple of years ago.

We're always getting unwanted cats dumped off at the house here as we keep a couple of outside cats that we feed on the porch. They're usually about half grown which tells me that some kid got a cute little kitten that grew up until the parents wanted it gone. People like that need dropped off somewhere.

[cheezyflier]

ages ago there was a story about feral cats in upstate new york that, after breeding a bunch of times in the wild began to regress. they grew larger, and had bigger teeth. they had killed several people before they were eradicated by a hunting line.

[OBIO]

No pet animal should ever be dumped into the wild...be it a dog, cat, snake, fish, bird, ferret, what ever.

The Florida Everglades is now being over run by various species of Python, with the Articulated Python (which can reach lengths of 20 feet) having established a breeding population estimated to be in the 150,000 range.

The Snakehead, a very aggressive predatory fish from Asia, has established breeding populations in a number of water ways, including the Patomic River...which connects to many other water ways. All species of Snakehead are on a Federal Ban list, and can not be imported into this country in any form.

The Pacu, a South American fish related to the Pirahna and Silver Dollar, has been found in a number of water ways, but no indication that it had established a breeding population. The Pacu is a large (up to 30 inches for the Red Belly and 40 inches for the Black Belly) powerful fish, but it is a big gentle giant...it eats plants, fruit and nuts. This fish is sold at a number of national chain pet stores (and Walmart quite often) and is totally misrepresented in how large it can get. Most stores I have seen it in, state that this fish only grows to 10 inches and can be kept in a 30 gallon aquarium.....the truth of the matter is that a single Red Belly Pacu requires a 300 to 500 gallon tank with very thick walls as the Pacu has been known to hit the glass with enough force to bust the aquarium. And no, fish do not grow to the size of their tank...they grow to the size their genetics tell them to grow to.

Many ponds and lakes have been overrun with Gold Fish and Koy that have been released by people who no longer wanted them or who found that the cute little fish in the pet store grew far larger than they were told it would grow to. Common and Comet varieties of Gold Fish can, and will, reach 18 to 24 inches in length and can live upwards of 40 plus years....if properly housed and cared for. Koy can reach lengths of 4 feet and there is some indication that a 75 year life span is possible for Koy. Gold Fish and Koy, under the right conditions, can breed like crazy and quickly overstock a pond or lake.

Some states and cities have banned the possession of ferrets due to some being found in the wild after being dumped by owners who no longer wanted to care for them. There is no indication that they have established breeding populations anywhere in the US, but that has not prevented them from being banned.

OBIO