12 Replies to "Police investigate report of dog killing Gatewood chickens"

• Guy October 3, 2014 (5:13 pm)

  Sitka, our Samoyed was found and is now safe. She was also cleared by the police of the “chicken killing” charges, the family said it wasn’t her.

• JanS October 3, 2014 (5:17 pm)

  good to know all is well :)

  hope they find the chicken killer !

• ruby October 3, 2014 (6:26 pm)

  we are so sorry that the poor chickens were killed by a dog. Hope that the owners will keep raising chicks.

  P.S. Sitka was and still is innocent!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Wes October 3, 2014 (7:04 pm)

  Hope no one tries to hold the dog responsible for going after chickens. The owner needs to keep their dog under control. Can’t blame a dog for being a dog.

• Joe October 3, 2014 (7:29 pm)

  FREE SITKA

• Ttt October 3, 2014 (10:08 pm)

  We’re the chickens fenced? How did the dog get in?

• russ October 4, 2014 (12:28 am)

  Chickens are often not fenced from what i can tell.

• pw October 4, 2014 (9:11 am)

  whenever you got chickens getting killed, that there is from the coyotes. same thing happened to my chickens now I have none

• (required) October 6, 2014 (12:05 am)

  Compelling West Seattle animal story, thanks. I’ll sleep easier now. Perhaps now you can cover the big news of that crazy trash container lid coming loose in front of the brown house on 43rd.

  • WSB October 6, 2014 (12:07 am)

    Yeah, I know this is kind of random. If SPD hadn’t decided to tweet it to the entire city, we wouldn’t likely have heard about it, let alone followed up. But when SPD goes citywide with something in WS, we get asked about it, so off we went.

• Mr. Potratz October 6, 2014 (3:47 pm)

  What happened:

  They were our three, 8 week old baby chickens, behind our house, in an enclosure with a plastic crate (est wgt 2 pds) blocking the the entrance. We also have 3 grown chickens in another fenced enclosure.

  We heard frantic noises from the 3 grown checkens. We ran fast to the cages. There were two dogs. One was outside the baby chicken run, the other we found behind the house munching on a baby chicken. My daughter ran to hopefully save the chicken; the dog dropped the baby and ran. My daughter picked up theh baby chicken, and …. her head from the ground. .. My daughter’s cries of loss carried deeply to my soul.

  The other two babies were also dead, and one was also decapitated.

  The dog who had the baby in her mouth was never cited again, but we are looking.

  Lessons learned:

  1. Stonger enclosures are needed to keep preditors out.
  2. People will let their dogs run free – at poentially great expense of anguish to others, such as us.
  3. The police and Seattle Animal control people are quick and responsive. We commend them for their efforts to understand the situation, and respond. …Thank you very much!!

  Finally, the situation is over and we have the bodies to bury, say good-bye and move onto the future.

• Mr. Potratz October 6, 2014 (5:24 pm)

  Our Baby Chickens (addendum)

  The baby chicks had become important to my two kids over the 6 weeks that the chicks lived with us. We kept them safe and dry in our living room at night while they were growing. We watched them grow, and literally, spread their wings to learn to fly. First a foot of height, and then higher.

  My kids would come home from school, and pick them up, and pet them. … Whatever stress came from school or a soccer match, was soon an emotion of the past. They were in the moment, sharing and loving, … and being loved.

  When my kids watched TV for awhile, they would hold a chick in their lap and pet them. Often, the chicks would flutter up to their shoulder, and cuddle close to them. And so a half hour would pass.

  One child asked after this had hapened, what have we learned or what will we learn from this incident?

  And now comes that step. … I hope it comes softly and educationally.

  Thank you for allowing me to share this with you.

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