First, a little background. I have a neighbor that has obnoxious dogs. they bark and howl at night, and she doesnt always keep them confined to her yard. They have come into my yard and harrassed my cats, and even injured one about 5 months ago. I informed all neighbors that dogs running wild would not be tolerated and i would call the police if they were barking at night, and have them picked up if they were running loose. Two months ago tomorrow, she “accidentally” let them out at night and they ended up breaking the back of my precious 16 year old cat. Me and that cat were closer friends than I have been with most people I rescued him from a shelter, and he followed me everywhere. My mom called him Hobbes because of the cartoon, and that he was with me constantly if i was in the same home. Anyway, I miss him terribly, and have told the neighbor she is a horrible witch, etc… and that now I’m REALLY serious about her keeping her dogs up. Now she chains them to trees during the day, and puts them inside at night.
I want revenge, but I don’t blame the dogs really because they are just being dogs. What i want to know is, if I can give a small dose of laxative to these dogs (in their water dish, for example) that will cause them to lose bowel control inside her house. I don’t want to kill the dogs, but if i could make them totally ruin her carpet and make her life miserable then I want to do it. She refused to pay the vet bill, even though she aknowledged that her dogs were out, they had been observed attacking this cat in the past (he wouldnt run away, he always stood his ground) and that she thought they had been fighting that night, but with a skunk. Anyway, any other suggestions of how to make her life hell are appreciated as well.
First of all, I’m very sorry regarding the loss of your cat. I work in the veterinary field and I can imagine the shock and grief you must be feeling.
Giving laxatives to your neighbors dogs is not a good idea. If you want to get back at your neighbor, fine, but some dogs can have extremely adverse reactions to laxatives and I don’t think that’s what you want. You said yourself that you don’t blame the dogs but you want revenge on your neighbor. There’s better ways of making her life hell without messing with the dogs.
By the way, she should have paid the vet bill. It was totally wrong of her to let the dogs run around at night. In this day and age when there seems to be a story of dog attacks everytime you turn on the news, it was negligent and dangerous for her to continue that behaviour. Perhaps you could get animal control or the local SPCA involved. Or you could sue her to have her pay the vet bill.
Again, I’m sorry about the loss of Hobbs. Nobody should go through what you and Hobbs did.
I had/have a simular issue (but due to the boards restriction against searches of 3 letter words and boards limit of searches of 30 seconds between searches I can’t find it). Basically the neighbor lets his dog out to crap on our collective lawns and tip over our collective garbage pails.
I for one had enough and have considered taking the matter into my own hands. I an trying to find out if I can use deadly force on the dog if it enters my garage - I have had enough. The police have been called several times as well as animal control. The SPCA even though have police powers do not respond to complaints. My best advice is to take the dog (if possible) and drive it to another town where a friend can turn it in as stray (ditch the tags).
Letting a dog run loose is no way for an owner to treat a dog - and I would argue that the dog is really without an owner and must be turned in. Hopefully it will be adopted out - maybe not.
both one of the vets i spoke with and the local police said that i do have the option of killing the dogs if they are trespassing, but only if they are threatening my property. The vet also advocated buying a paintball gun, and that would be a great option if i could find some paintballs that were indelible instead of being able to wash right out. I had commented to the police that i had no options since i couldnt shoot a gun in the city limits, he said you have a right to defend your property, which includes your pets. If I am able to catch one one night, I can promise you that i won’t get much sleep that night, but the old bitch wont ever see that dog again. He will be several counties away without his tags.
Too bad that the laxative idea is not a good one. maybe just some old fashioned soap in their water dish? surely there is something that would work. I know that for humans, you can give someone near instantaneous diarreah (sp) by emptying a vial of visine into someone’s drink. it’s a waitress trick to deal with obnoxious businessmen, i’m told. there has to be something that would safely loosen a dog’s bowels a few hours after he ingests it.
But you wouldn’t have any guarantees as to when they’d let loose, and it’s just as likely that they’d do it in the yard and not in the house.
I don’t understand why you can’t just catch the dogs when they’re trespassing and then either confine them in your yard (is it fenced?) or tie them to a post, and then call Animal Control and have them come and get 'em. Are they wearing collars? Do they bite?
Just get a couple of cheap nylon dog leashes, keep them handy and the next time you see the dogs in your yard, go grab 'em, snap 'em, and tie 'em up. We have a chronic stray dog problem in our neighborhood, and I did this a couple of times with stray dogs, tieing them up to the front porch posts, before we got the back yard fenced in. Now I just lure them into the backyard with a piece of bologna, make sure both gates are closed, and then call Macon County Animal Control (not the Humane Society, which is a different group).
Except for the Big Red Chow, curse him, who leaped the fence. But better dogcatchers than I had tried to catch him for months, and for all I know, he’s still running free out there somewhere on the prairie… 
Oh, I see, she’s chaining them up at night, and you just want revenge. Sorry, can’t help you there, other than suggesting that you give her kid a drum kit for Christmas.
Animal control would seem to be the answer, but unfortunately, it isn’t. We have an animal control officer here who does her best. However she works regular hours, this means while most people are at work, she is at work too. So when we get home and find dogs running loose, she is off work then. Here is the real kicker…we no longer have a place to put them, so unless they are menacing someone, there is nothing that can be done except cite the owner. What happens, you ask, if the dog isn’t wearing tags? Answer is…nothing. yep, nothing. Until we get a new agreement with the county or build our own shelter, the only dogs that get dealt with are the dangerous ones or ones neighbors complain about. At my previous house in the same town, dogs got to running in packs, and you know how dangerous that is. My next door neighbor’s two year old son got his face bitten by a dog that got out of his yard. Luckily two 12 year old boys saved him.
Animal control is the same here.
The way I see it you have some choices to make:
1 to get justice by attacking, killing, relocating the dog.
or
2 revenge against the owner
If you go for option 1 you will need the dog to be loose and then you can do what is needed to defend your property or can leave some items around that a dog might be interested in.
If you go for option 2 you can have a summons issued against the person by (hopefully) patitioning the attorney general or whoever handles this. Once a judgement is placed against them or a guilty plea is entered I would think you can launch a small claims action against them - since they were already found guilty I would think you would win easy. Also I would go for somethign like vet bills + a large donation to a local shelter instead of going after the cash for yourself. I would think a judge will be willing to award more if the money is not going directly to you.
You could also go the route of signing them up for a mailing list to receive large quantities of junk main and the like. Hmmm.
Just remember if you truly want revenge there are options open to you that could give them lots of greif but are legally your option.