mfaley, My wife nixed my best sign idea on the grounds that it wasn't "FRIENDLY." It was to say, "CAUTION, SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE POSSIBLE... MY RIFLE, YOUR TIRE. So far the honors for protecting the herd go to a friend and neighbor whose actions a few winters back eliminated a pack of family pets and strays that were marauding through the local area. Five dogs had one of his cows down in the snow. He had just recently bought an ATV and had a holster for his .243. He drove within good shooting range and took out 4 of the 5 and tracked the 5th hme where it was hiding under the hoiuse. The lady of the house came out to see what he wanted and when she learned that their dog had been involved, promised that her husband would shoot it when he got home. My friend told her it woiuldn't be necessary, called the dog out, shot it and hauled it off on his ATV. There were no repurcussions. Most folks around here know the rules. If your dog won't stay home you might as well shoot it yourself because it WILL either cause trouble for someone else and get shot or get shot because it was somewhere it didn't belong. There is not much tolerance for roaming dogs, especially in groups.

By the way my friend isn't a bloodthirsty shoot it on sight kind of guy. His personal pet that rides the tractor with him in its own fender mounted box and goes everywhere in the pickup was a stray that got dumped near their place and he adopted it. Had it joined a roaming pack or chased calves it would have been shot.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]