Dogs.
"Man's Best Friend" or something else?
Wild Dogs Kill Georgia Woman and Husband
This is something to be aware of if and when a serious disruption occurs in society. It takes a surprisingly short time for "Fido, The Friendly Family Pet" to go to Cujo, "Terror of the Wastelands".
There is a discussion on the subject in the archives of the forums at Backwoods Home Magazine. Some opine that it can take as few as two days for a dog to go feral.
When I was in High School, one of the kids I knew had a family that raised sheep.
One lambing season, he came to me and asked if I had a rifle. I told him yes. He wanted to know if I could come out to his place on Saturday morning and bring the gun with me. He asked me not to mention this around school.
I arrived at the appointed time and found four other guys that I was acquainted with also bearing rifles. I had the only semi-auto, a Ruger Mini-14. Everyone else had bolt action hunting rifles.
The kid's father came out and explained what he needed for us to do. If we didn't want to, or didn't feel right about it, he understood and no hard feelings. I suspect it was teenage bravado and not wanting to lose face in front of each other that kept us all there.
We loaded up in an old Jeep and a Ford Pickup and set out across the hills in search of a pack of dogs that had been mauling the sheep and had killed a few lambs.
I've never been "hunting". Taking game has never been something that I've needed to do. I suspect that I should probably do more than just read books on the subject, but I don't think I'm prepared for that yet.
We found the pack of dogs that day.
They ACTUALLY charged the vehicles! Snarling and snapping as they ran alongside. Surprisingly, I was so damn scared that I had no problem opening fire on them. After the first few were shot, the others scattered and we had to chase them into a Manzanita stand.
After we finished, I was surprised to see a couple of the dogs had collars with current tags.
Many years later, when Felinae and I lived on a farm after just getting married, we had a problem with something coming after the geese at night.
One night, the ruckus was particular loud so I grabbed my 1911 and a flashlight and headed out to the goose pen. There are no lights out there by the pen and there was just the light of a waning moon. I heard something running toward me, and I raised my flashlight and gun at the same time and fired as something black came at me out of the darkness.
It was the dog from across the road. It had jumped at me in the darkness, and was now laying dead in front of me.
There are stories from soldiers serving in Iraq about having to fight off packs of feral dogs as well as insurgents.
Man's Best Friend? Maybe as long as you feed them.
7 comments:
...remember,they're pack animals !...check yer six...
There Smart as hell too.. They will get a female say a border collie or smaller breed distract you either feigning a injury whilst the others are looking for a place to eat you from the sides/rear. I think about what it would be like after a total societal breakdown its not the human scum /zombies bikers I'm too worried about. Its the god dam dog packs that will hunt people like wolves hunting deer. One man armed with a carbine will get chewed on even if hes a good shot.
Check this old trapper out talking about wire snares dealing with feral dogs:
http://www.survival-center.com/buckshot/dogs.htm
Worth reading and thiniing about if you have livestock.
It's really pretty damn scary! Just have to be prepared, that's for sure!
Hey guys,
Thanks for visiting and FarmerMechanic, thanks for the informative link.
Radio, I'm curious about how your friend got out of the tree. Did the dogs just up and leave or did he help them cross over?
Catman, in the early morning he started shooting them with his bow until he ran out of arrows...
The rest just sniffed around after he shot the last arrow, and took off, after the first one they understood what he was doing and were trying to stay out of range. He said that he thought if he had a gun the report would have been more effective in chasing them off.
i always carried a pistol when bow hunting after this happened to him.
I think that dogs will become very dangerous animals if civilization takes a vacation. Not their fault, when Fido doesn't get his Kibbles N Bits from his owner, it will fend for itself. Self preservation.
Perimeter guards / fences will become very necessary for this reason alone.
Check your regs if carrying a firearm during hunting season - some wildlife departments won't allow that. Dumb on their part - to me, just makes sense.
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