anyone having human predators?

We have never had any trouble, in our neighborhood no one even locks thier doors.

Then.......

Last week our nighbor had a 4 wheeler stolen.

2 weeks ago we had a prowler who left the door open on the barn. It looked like he went in the man door in the barn and then opened the back slider and left. I suspect he didn't like the big dogs on the other side of the slider door. Hubby thinks they were seeing if we had a 4 wheeler in there. The neighbors being stolen a few day later adds evidence to that theory.

Doors are getting locked now, guns are being kept closer to the bed.......
 
the replies i see really bother me. if i thought someone was actually in my barn and then IN MY HOUSE??!! that would scare me bad. when i'm scared, the phone isn't what i reach for. back at Christmas time a neighbor committed suicide in our pasture w/his gun. it had been really cold & we hadn't gone out for a few days. he had laid there four days. when we came upon him it was awful. it's sure not like it was when i was a kid. people are scary.
this convinces me though that preparing for goats to be secure will take some real planning to get it right.
thanks for the responses.
 
That is so awful bj. I cannot imagine what it would be like to find someone like that.
It certainly would etch itself in your mind.
I try not to get overworried about the way things are going, however things are not getting better for alot of people.
Some are willing to work hard for what they get and many others just feel they are entitled to take it from others. So for those types we must protect ourselves as best we can.
 
Dang I'm sorry sorry for everyone's losses. Fortunately we haven't had any issues like that around here. All the neighbors know each other and keep an eye out for each other's property. Plus we are home almost all day everyday. I sure hope nothing like this ever happens to us. We do keep everything locked, we're quite a ways off the road, and everyone has guns and dogs so hopefully that will deter anything from happening!
 
We haven't had any issues with people, but another guy in two had a four of five piglets along with the feed and feeder taken last year, the year before that it was some lambs. I don't worry about the ewes that are in with the rams. Henry's mean enough he could kill someone if they dont watch him. I do worry about he ewes with the babies. Luckily, they back against the dog pen and truthfully if I was a thief I don't know if I would trust that chicken wire to keep back two 150+ dogs who would probably be very happy to physically escort them back to there car. Worst comes to worse Rylie and Izzy could stay with the ewes. They don't now since they can jump the fence.



People are crazy
 
A few years back there was a case where cops stopped a car for traffic violation and heard bleating noise in the trunk area. A goat was found in the trunk. Official thought the goat was stolen and was on it's way to be dinner.... Lucky goat got rescued and found another home. Original owners were never found.
I have always wondered...if anyone wants to steal my goats, it is not hard. Even if I locked all the gates, it is not hard to just cut the fencing. Hopefully no one is interested in my fat goats.
 
Disturbing! And here we were thinking finding four dead cats (squished) on the road in front of our house (the last one in our yard) was messed up and possibly worth putting up a trail camera!
Treeclimber - you really SHOULD get some kind of camera system up...sounds like someone might be after you! If nothing else...you could have them charged with tresspassing....
stay safe everyone!
 
Our neighbors had a tragic fire at their mobile home in which they both lost thier lives. Our local paper made the grand announcement about our secluded little valley and how no one is around and all they see are no trespassing signs on the driveways. They also happen to mention that there were cars in the driveway of the burned out trailer, but it appeared that no one was home (they were dead, no kidding, duh). Within a day both cars from that home were stolen and on more than one occasion people were there at night looking for anything they could steal to sell for drugs. The Sheriffs were too busy and stretched too thin to do anything about it. Our goat pasture borders their land and I can't see it from my home. I am really glad I have two LGDs that are more than happy to patrol that fence line. And a hot wire :)

People that are looking for a way to buy drugs will do anything. So far we haven't had any problems with them coming onto our land, but the doors are locked and the gun is not far away. Even though they haven't been here I am pretty ticked about the way the newspaper report more or less told the community about our "hiding" place and to come and get it.

Even before this I worried about the goats. Not so much now that I have the dogs, but I worry more about someone shooting them just for fun than I do about them being stolen. It is a sad world. My dogs can't chase off a bullet.
 
It's dark where we live and there is one neighbor who leaves a barn light ON at night.
We do not leave any lights ON.
However, I was wondering if any of you leave on a porch light, barn light, etc. at night.
What are your opinions on leaving lights on as far as a human predator deterrent?
 
in my opinion, a light on is better. i have one on in the coop area & around the house. i live more in the suburbs, so crime is more of an issue. if i need to go out in the night, i want light. to me it seems a criminal is more comfortable out of the spotlight.
 
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