A sad thing happened here...

[gentle giants]

My husband and I live right next door to my parent's house, we bought part of their property from them and put a house on it. Anyway, my mom has had chickens for years, ever since I had them in 4-H and she fell inlove with them, LOL.

My Mom was taking out the garbage on Monday morning, and noticed that it was awfully quiet in the chicken house. When she realized that none of them were out in the yard scratching around on a beatiful sunny day, she knew something was wrong. She went into the house, and found all of her hens and her pair of geese, dead. Something went into the house and just broke all their necks, most of them didn't have a mark on them. One of the geese was missing, and one was partially eaten, but from the fact the chickens were hardly even touched, we think mabye a possum came in later and took advantage of the situation, rather than the killer actually eating it.

And here's the really weird part, folks. Instead of them just laying all over the place like you would think, they were all in this neat pile in the middle of the house. And whatever did this was not only big enough to carry away a goose that weighed probably over 15 pounds, but was so fast that neither my parents nor my husband and I heard them yelling. And when chickens get disturbed at night, they scream their dang heads off! What we all keep thinking/saying is, what kind of animal does that? Not only kill them all apparently just for fun, but then pile them all up neatly in the middle of the house? It is seriously creepy. The only thing we could think was that coyotes did it, cause it seems like it would have had to have been more than one animal to kill 8-9 birds without giving them time to yell for help.

 

[myheart]

Are you sure it wasn't a person who did this? "No marks on them" and "piled in the middle of the floor"sounds more like one or more persons doing something very hateful. I know preditors can do some damage very swiftly, but taking the time to toss the birds in the middle of the floor and only taking one goose? Just doesn't sound like an animal did all of this horrible act aloneto me.

I am so sorry for your parent's loss. I hope they figure this one out before the trail grows cold.

myheart

 

[polly]

Oh thats awful. I have to say it does sound like a person has done it whatever its a horrid thing to happen your poor mum

 

[LadyBug]

myheart wrote:

Are you sure it wasn't a person who did this? "No marks on them" and "piled in the middle of the floor"sounds more like one or more persons doing something very hateful.

that's exactly what i was thinking:X:grumpynasty people!). i'm sorry this happened to y'all, i hope you get it sorted out soon!

 

[luvthempigs]

I hate to say but it sounds to me like a person or persons did the killing. Maybe a bunch of teenagers on a dare or something like that?

God only knows what happened to the goose they took....

I would have taken photos and reported it to the police. I don't know that they could do anything but it should be something that is on file incase of future trouble and who knows maybe other people in the neighborhood have had trouble as well.

 

[juliew19673]

OMG! That is horrific?! I have to sign on to the "person" theory and perhaps thats why they didn't scream their little heads off as they equate humans w/love and caring.

Thats is horrible. I'd report it to - whoever/whatever did this to you - might just go do it to another family until they/it are caught...

Poor chickens and Goose.. I wonder if the Goose got away? Did you take a look around at all?

 

[JadeIcing]

I can not see ANY animal doing this and not eatting them.

That has a human print on it. I would call the police, see if anything else has been reported.

 

[mouse_chalk]

Oh my god... that's just awful... I'm so sorry for your parents, and your mum must have had such a shock having to find that... I have to agree, although I don't know all that much about predators etc, the way that they were all piled up like that, sounds more likely to be a person to me too. What an awful, meaningless thing to do though...

 

[naturestee]

I'm so sorry for your parents' losses. My grandma had pet chickens too, she loved them.

I really do think that it was people. Did your parents call the police? My husband and my mom both grew up with chickens on the farm and if a fox or coyote gotnear they would scream enough to wake everyone up. And I've never heard of predatory animals piling up their kills, even if they were just killing for fun. Or animals that kill without a mark aside from a prey animal being scared to death but then they wouldn't have all died at once.

:sad:

 

[trailsend]

We have Fishers here and they will often kill everything in a coop and not eat all or most of the kills.... they make an awful mess, and destroy everything. This doesn't sound completely un usual but them being in a pile is most strange - I've seen some strange things and dealt with LOTS of predators when it comes to chickens and ducks - what a nightmare! But that's a new one on me. I'm sorry she lost all her birds

 

[pumpkinandwhiskersmom]

It really does sound like something a person or people have done....which is even more creepy, if you ask me. I'm so sorry for your losses. :sad:

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I was also thinking a person/people doing this as well. Jerks! I hope you report this. Let us know if anything comes of it. Your mom must be devastated.

 

[Haley]

Oh wow, that makes me just sick to think about. I would definitely call the police in case it was a person or people

 

[MsBinky]

That is just cruel. I am sorry

 

[gentle giants]

Thanks for the sympathy, guys. Most of the hens were rather elderly ones that were pets, except for a couple young ones we had gotten to lay eggs. There were two that survived the attack, a banty pair that was in a big rabbit hutcha few feet from the main house. Ironic that the bigger chickens picking on them ended up saving their lives, huh?

I don't know what to think about what killed them, really. I know that we do have coyotes around here that are unhealthy, the population is so huge that disease is spreading now. So I don't know if it could have just been a couple of deranged coyotes, or whether to think it was people. I know the same thing happened to our neighbor down theroad last year, all of the birds he had running around in the yard were killed, with one or two taken away, but all the birds that were in cages or in the barn were left alone. And this happened to him twice, before he stopped letting any run "loose" in the main pen. He had a lot more birds than we did, he had something like 25-6 killed in the first attack, some of them valuable show birds too. We hadn't even thought about reporting it to the police, honestly, this is farm country and the police would probably be politley skeptical about why they were being called on this. Although asking if any animal cruelty/torture cases have been reported lately is a good idea, I may check on that.

 

[Leader of the Pack]

What an awful thing to haveto go through. I'm inclined to agree with everyone else; to have all the bodies piled neatly seems "sub-human" to me....:XAndnearly impossible to prove well enough to make a case to law-enforcement.

We live on the outskirts of the city and often have huge opossums visit our garage where we leave a dish of food out for a couple of wild/feral cats that have called our garage home for a number of years now. I've never known a opossum to bother the cats, and I know the cats aren't bothered by them. They just want to eat the cat food. Coyotes on the other hand, it could be. Especially since you mentioned you have a problem with them.

While we were visiting a friend of my father's once, a coyote came out into and open pasture, in the light of day in an attempt to get one of his hens. Thank goodness my father's friend saw the coyote and made enough noise to scare both away from each other. If their hungry enough, I'm sure almost anything is possible.

I'm so sorry...and hope nothing like this happens again.

Terri

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

i have to say when i read it i first thought it was a person or people that did it. If it was a person that is scary, anyone who would kill an animal for the sport or fun of it in my mind is horribly disturbed. I am so sorry for your parents loss and i hope that if it was a person or persons they are caught.

 

[PixieStixxxx]

Oh my goodness! I am so sorry about the loss of your chickens and goose. That's awful what this animal or person did :X

 

[Bunnicula]

Just wanted to chime in and say that it does sound so much like the predator was people.

Sorry to hear about the birds. No matter how old they are, I know they were a loved part of your family.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Just wondering if you guys called this in and what has come of it.

I was talking to my hubby about it tonight, he used to have chickens growing up. He thinks one of the geese would have chased them off, but I said in the middle of the night? Maybe not then. He also thinks it was stupid kids. If your mom wants to do this again, he said to get a turkey, they'll chase anyone off your property.