azredhawk44
Moderator
Hasn't happened to me, but I've had my dog on a walk (on leash) a couple times now and seen coyotes not 25 yards away on the other side of the street in good old suburbia.
Let's say a stray dog or yote comes up to you and your dog. You're properly controlling and restraining your dog, but the stray animal closes distance outside of your ability to retreat or go another direction.
The stray is obviously interested in your dog, not necessarily in you.
I see two options:
#1 - let your dog loose.
#2 - shoot the stray.
Letting your dog loose doesn't guarantee that the fight won't make its way back to your legs anyways, resulting in the injuries you were trying to avoid. It also exposes your dog almost certainly to injuries or diseases carried by the stray/yote. Possibly even in death of your dog (being a piece of property in the eyes of the law).
Shooting the animal stops the threat. But, it leaves a lot of ambiguity about the appropriateness of the shoot. Requires police response, disposal of animal, at least a cursory interview or investigation into the righteousness of the shooting event.
Note that I don't mean to infer that it's okay to pop yotes while walking your dog at the neighborhood park... I'm just not sure what is "right" to do if a yote decides to get territorial with my dog on a leash and me unable to get away faster than the yote advances.
Would that fall under a "stand your ground/castle doctrine/no obligation to retreat" situation?
Let's say a stray dog or yote comes up to you and your dog. You're properly controlling and restraining your dog, but the stray animal closes distance outside of your ability to retreat or go another direction.
The stray is obviously interested in your dog, not necessarily in you.
I see two options:
#1 - let your dog loose.
#2 - shoot the stray.
Letting your dog loose doesn't guarantee that the fight won't make its way back to your legs anyways, resulting in the injuries you were trying to avoid. It also exposes your dog almost certainly to injuries or diseases carried by the stray/yote. Possibly even in death of your dog (being a piece of property in the eyes of the law).
Shooting the animal stops the threat. But, it leaves a lot of ambiguity about the appropriateness of the shoot. Requires police response, disposal of animal, at least a cursory interview or investigation into the righteousness of the shooting event.
Note that I don't mean to infer that it's okay to pop yotes while walking your dog at the neighborhood park... I'm just not sure what is "right" to do if a yote decides to get territorial with my dog on a leash and me unable to get away faster than the yote advances.
Would that fall under a "stand your ground/castle doctrine/no obligation to retreat" situation?