A very real possible justification I'd say. We have and always have had dog issues where I live. I'm very aware of that, but many of the people moving out here aren't. There's one who's wife rides her bike down the road and around in the late morning/early afternoon with a childseat+child on the back. Moreso she doesn't carry unless it's hidden in the childseat on the bike with the kid because what she wears on these bike rides doesn't leave much to the imagination or anywhere to carry a gun.
They have dogs but she doesn't even take one of them with her.
Between her being unarmed, having a child with her, and her attire or rather lack of attire
, all I can do is shake my head. You've got human predators, feral dogs, free roaming non-feral dogs, dog/coyote half breeds, coyotes, the cougar up on the ridge, and to top it all off, a heck of a case of road rash if she falls off.
But whatever. Not my problem I suppose.
But yeah, there's all kinds of dogs out here. Coyotes as well, though I don't worry about them unless one of them gets to inquisitive and starts hanging around the property and coming in close and not showing fear of humans. The coyote/dog half breeds worry me more. Most of all family dogs and "Guard dogs" worry me. People move out here, buy their 20 acres and build their 300-500K house, then spend all their time at work paying for it. What do they bring in to take care of it while their gone? Dogs. I've always wondered though, just how effective a guard dog is when it's a mile away from what it's supposed to be guarding.
For a while I had an issue with Rottweilers. They were always showing up. I don't know where they came from or who owned them, or I'd have had some choice words with their owner.
I'd seen one or two in the back pasture a time or two, and I didn't like the idea of them being out there with the animals. So the next time I saw one I took the shotgun and walked out there to see about it. He'd went off into a neighboring pasture while I was getting the gun and walking out there. It was a hayfield with 3' grass in it, and mine was cropped by the horses, so although I couldn't see the dog anymore I wasn't worried, I had a good field of vision around me. I don't like to kill neighbors dogs, so I usually just walk up as close as I can, then tell them roughly to "Go Home Dog, HOME" and fire a round or two in the air and that's usually the last time I see them. Most neighbors dogs are just mutts though.
This one came out of the grass about 50'-60' in front of me, kinda all stiff legged and locked on me while slowly creeping forward. So says I, this feller sure is unfriendly for being on somebody elses turf. I just stayed put and watched, I had a 12ga loaded with buck, I wasn't worried and I wanted to feel him out, see just how unfriendly he was. Then he huffed and dang it I sure do hate it when animals huff. He'd said his piece so I felt compelled to say mine, so I put on my mean voice and said, "HOME Dog, GET". He didn't like that, leastwise that's how I interpreted his sudden charge. I had a cure for that though, or so I thought, and I laid a round in the dirt between us. Imagine my surprise when he didn't even slow. Then imagine my surprise when the next round didn't fire.
I'd never had the 870 fail to fire, surprised the crap out of me. I recovered and racked it out and for reasons I can't explain to this day laid another one between us, though there wasn't much left between us. I was on deter the dog autopilot I suppose, when I should have changed gears to stop the threat overdrive.
Luckily for me though the second (3rd) round at nearly point blank range between us changed his mind and he shied off to the side then started humping it back towards the tall grass. I figured while I had him in retreat mode I'd make a further impression so I racked another one in and said, "GET HOME", and then felt really pissy when the 4th round failed to fire. By now I was so jittered by my trusty 870's sudden new failure to fire habit that I fired the last round off, and it did go off, and suddenly found myself with an empty gun. I had more ammo, but I should have kept that round in reserve while I reloaded.
So he went his way and I went off to fiddle with the 870, strip it down, clean it, oil it, yada yada, which it probably sorely needed but I think it all came down to old ammo/bad batch. I haven't had any more issues with it.
You might think this was the end of it, and you might think I'd have learned my lesson, but it wasn't and I hadn't.
He came around another time or two only he had a buddy with him. He was a bit more respectful of me, and I never had a clear shot, so I resorted to firing warning shots up in the air when I'd see them and they'd run off and I'd think that was the end of it. Then they'd show up again the next week.
Then there was three of them. Then four. Then one day I saw the bunch of them coming across the neighbors pasture headed towards mine and I decided enough was enough, they were getting to be to much of a threat. I'd get the 870 and wait for them, so I grabbed it and started walking out to the pasture.
There were four, I had four in the tube and one in the chamber. How many spare rounds do you need with a 12ga? I wasn't a total fool though, I grabbed a bandoleer of 00 at the same time I grabbed the shotgun.
So here they come. I'm walking out, they're coming in at an angle, suddenly I noticed there were five this time. These weren't mutts mind you, these were Rotts, fully grown and nice looking ones at that, and I couldn't help but wonder just where in the devil so many Rotts were coming from. So much for a spare round.
Then a sixth trotted into view, and then a seventh. I kinda went slack jawed and sorta felt like throwing down my gun and throwing a hissy fit, I'm in the middle of a field facing down seven Rotts with gun that holds 5 rounds, just where in the tarnation did SEVEN rottweilers come from? And who the bleep was their owner? If I lived through this I'd rip somebodies...
Sure was a funny feeling with seven Rotts and five in the gun, so was the feeling I got when the spotted me and their heads came up and they paused, then turned around and started loping back the way they came.
I wasn't too worried as I was expecting if I had to I'd make the five rounds count, maybe have time to reload, the shotty would make a good club, and surely some of them would run off in the meele? Pretty much all of that was running through my head
I wasn't disappointed that we didn't have a showdown either though.
That was also the last time I've seen a Rottweiler around my place, it's been about 4-5 years now. Either they ran into someone else who was more trigger happy than me, or their owner up and moved.
There's been countless other dogs, coyotes, etc in the meanwhile though. The Rotts were just the most memorable group of dogs I've had to deal with. (;
It's pretty country out here, but I don't jog, walk, ride a bike, or do any such activity, but if I did I would certainly carry, first and foremost for the creatures and second for the less likely (IMO) reason of human predators. Not that I'm afraid of the critters, I like most of them, but I've seen enough threats come out of the blue to like to have a tool to deal with them handy should one be needed.
