free ranging goats and horses? i have never heard of such!

Jeff,

Try moving to New Market, Alabama! There is a house around the corner, on a very heavily traveled road - and goats are constantly stopping traffic! It's going to be awful when one gets hit! ItÂs just a matter of time.

As for the horses, some guy came knocking at our door at 12:30 one night because he almost hit "our" horses in the road! We explained that they were NOT "our" horses. He said, "Well they are in your yard so much, I just assumed they were yoursÂ"

Geeeezzzz!

Meadow Lark

I just thought of something!

Maybe YOU are the guy that used to live next to us!

Maybe they were YOUR horses and goats! Maybe that was YOU using the back acre for target practice!!!

Well? What do you have to say about that? Huh?

LOL... Meadow Lark

Just wondering!!!!!!! What is it about Goats in these parts of the country? Along Hwy 98 there are many goats grazing in the Pecan Orchards? My best guess is that they keep the weeds down???????

never been to new market that i recall. the only thing i might shoot is a squirrel or two on my little one-acre estate. i don't like them very much. they have chewed on my house, dug up plants and destroyed several bird feeders.
on a side note, i did have a neighbor that once let his goats out on purpose. they travelled down the street and into a neighbor's yard where they proceeded to severely trim the foundation plants. i called him to let him know his goats were out and destroying plants in someone's yard. he told me it was an experiment to see if they would stay close to home and return to his house after they grazed! he never acted like he was sorry for any damage they may have done.
i remember thinking how rude and inconsiderate that was of him, having no regard for other people's property.
now, if they had migrated to my land, i may have shot (at?) one of his goats.
i tried goat meat once - did not care for it! *lol*

If I remember correctly, we have a law in Alabama for escaped farm animals. Catch the goats, horses, cattle on your property. Hold them and call the local police. File charges and list damages. The owner must pay the damages before the animals are returned. Or ... catch them, load them up and take them to the local humane society. Apparently the owner doesn't give a darn. Forty plus years ago, a neighbor had a huge, mean rooster and several hens that she allowed to roam freely. Whatever we planted in the garden, he scratched up. We asked her many, many times to catch them and pen them up. One day, I used a 20 guage shotgun on the rooster. Yes, she lived within earshot and heard the shot. She penned up the rest of the chickens by the next day.

Terry,

I called the police, and they were there WHILE the goats were on our property. They took a report. I handed them a photo of the goats on my back porch, for their file.

The issue went "through the system", according to them. They said they gave him a "warning", and told him that I had the right to KEEP his animals (and dispose of them as I saw fit), if they continued to come on our property. I told them I DON'T want to be responsible for getting rid of HIS animals... That's his job!

To make matters worse, four times I came home and found a billy goat "stuck" in our field fencing. One of them had been stuck long enough (we have 10 acres, and he was on the back portion of our property), that I wasn't sure he was going to live. I set him loose, and he laid just laid there. I went and got a bucket of water, and slowly poured it on him, and some into his mouth. (It was the middle of July.) He finally got up and stumbled back to his buddies. (By the way - the only reason I knew to go back there in the first place was that the entire group of goats was standing back there, pacing, and looking nervous...)

The only thing that really worked (right before my neighbors moved) was when I came home and found the goats eating my Heritage Birch. (This was a $160 tree we had just planted...) I called the guys house, and spoke with his wife. I told her they were going to owe us $160 for the tree, and several hundred more for the "all you can eat buffet". Within a week - the goats were gone. The people moved about two months later.

They did - however, retain some of their acreage (about 8 acres) that is currently for sale. There are 3 horses on the property (he comes to check on them once or twice a week). He fixed the gate, so that they can no longer get out...

ML

Does anyone have problems with 4-wheelers? We do. We live on a farm. In the past few years some lands have been cut up into plots and sold to people wanting to move to the country. Before they settle in they buy their children 4-wheelers. There was a 4-wheeler part in a pasture a few weeks ago on Saturday night and a fire got out and the fire deparment called to put it out. I found out a child's name and talked to his mother. I was told that a neighbor's child had told them that had permission to be on our land and talking further I found out that we had given all these boys permission to fish in our pond. I told her that we had given no one permission to be on our land for anything. Our fences have been cut, fish population down, hillside of pasture has ruts cut so erosion has started, the lower areas near the river and creek looks like a company of tanks has had manuvers there and roads are all through the woods from our farm to my aunts farm over to the subdivision where the boys live. I have not idea the $ amount of damage.

Talking to parents or the authorities hasn't helped in the past. I hope I got the message out this time.

Another landowner has had $7,000.00 damage done to his terraces.

Their way of thinking is: MOVE TO THE COUNTRY AND YOU HAVE FULL DOMAIN OVER ALL AROUND YOU. YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANYONE FOR ANYTHING YOU DESTROY. IT IS YOURS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT AND RECREATION.

I dread this summer when those boys are out of school. They come in the back way at night and have their riding parties. Now that I have really made them mad they will probably show me just what they will do.

Sorry. I know this is a long way from goats and horses but it is still a hugh problem around here.

MimiDi,

We have the same problem where we are. Our property is enclosed by a combo of "field" fence and barbed wire. There a two areas that are "open" to the road.

We were advised by the local police that we had to post signs on our property that "specifically" read:

- NO TRESPASSING
- NO HUNTING
- NO FISHING

IMPORTANT: The signs had to have a "name" line on them, for us to write our last name AND phone number. (Can you believe that without the name and phone number on the sign, the trespasser can claim that he didnÂt realize that anyone in particular owned the property, and/or he didnÂt know who to ask for "permission" to use the property!!!!) Sounds like a load of manure, but thatÂs the way the law looks are it.

Anyway  we have posted these signs around the perimeter of the property, and have not had the problem with 4-wheelers (or trespassers) since. (They sell the signs at Home Depot and some other "larger" stores, as well as some of the larger feed stores.)

Too bad the local livestock canÂt read!

Meadow Lark

PS - Any photos you can take on the "sly" of the trespassers on your property will be a huge help. When you take those photos to the parents, and threaten further action, they might think twice about letting "junior" have full rein when they realize you are formally documenting the incidents...

Thanks MeadowLark. I had been told we need the No Trespassing signs. Will check out Home Depot for them.

We are keeping an eye out on the weed-ends to see if they are coming back in. Pictures or video, a good idea.

I did extensive research on this due to a problem with a neighbor who thought a single strand of barb wire would keep in calves and cattle finally told him if I caught his calves in my garden again I was gonna have to eat veal, and another farmer's 1500 pound pregnant black angus that totalled the wife's van and almost her while standing in the middle of the road on a dark night on a county road. It is amazing what the laws are. You can see the laws at the link below. You can also look under title 13a and find out things about trespassing and criminal mischief.

Here is a link that might be useful: Code of Alabama Animal Laws

Thanks Bama. I have marked this so I can go back and read more.

We always used 5 stands of barbed wire in our fences to keep the cows where they were supposed to be.

I don't live in the country, but what I have are problems with one particular neighbors cats and dogs. These people have the trashiest yard you have ever seen, and I mean that literally. From time to time other people in the neighborhood will call town hall, and then they will make them pick up all the trash. It is awful.

They have repeatedly gotten new animals, which would not be so bad if they would take care of them, but they do not. They will leave and deliberately let them out of the house or off of their chain. I have watched them watch their animals tear up my plants. The longer it goes on the more vocal I get. It will get better for a while, and then if I slack up, they slack up. It is ongoing. I do not feel the desire to have to show my hind end to make others act responsibly.

This neighbor found a snake in her yard last year and told me in her opinion it was my "fault" because my yard was so "grown up". I told her that the whole neighborhood thought that it was her "fault" because she would not cut her grass or maintain her yard.

That's my rant,
Deb

Someone bought the 10 acres beside me and the farmer lost his lease on the property and had to move his cows and guess what last night there were 2 calves in the road and one adult in my new neighbors property so I was nice and let his wife know about the cows being out. He was out last night with a spot light looking at the field but guess since the cows had moved back to his fields figured there was nothing wrong. Looked out the bedroom window this morning and cows all over the neighbors property! Glad he is now a buffer zone for me.

Bob