Wild dogsAn odd occur­rence hap­pened to me this win­ter. The short ver­sion: Late one cold evening we heard an odd sound at the front door. Our dog start­ed bark­ing. I didn’t see any­one at the door. No one rang the bell. So final­ly I care­ful­ly cracked open the door and a head start­ed to stick its way in!

A dog’s head.

A rather large, cold, some­what thin pit bull was parked on our front stoop and would not leave. He wasn’t act­ing aggres­sive but with a pit bull you can’t tell (they are good dogs, get a bad rep­u­ta­tion, but you nev­er know how he’s been raised/trained). Any oth­er type of dog my wife would have tak­en in at least for the night. But with our own dog and two small chil­dren in the house we couldn’t take the chance.

We called the police who did come and after sev­er­al tries was able to cap­ture the dog. While wait­ing for Ani­mal Con­trol a guy (I nev­er saw him before in the neigh­bor­hood) who claimed to be the own­er showed up claim­ing the dog had got­ten out of his yard and he’s been search­ing all night. The police seemed to accept it, no trou­ble was made, and the guy was able to leave with the ani­mal.

All’s well that ends well I sup­pose.

But that got me think­ing.

Loose, wild fer­al dogs are a BIG prob­lem already in many places urban as well as sub­ur­ban and rur­al. After a wide spread SHTF event that prob­lem can be even big­ger.

Hun­gry, afraid, cold – these ani­mals can be very aggres­sive and dan­ger­ous.

They don’t scare eas­i­ly.
Don’t back off with a token show of force.
May trav­el and attack in packs.
May car­ry dis­ease (not just rabies) and par­a­sites.
Prob­a­bly won’t retreat if a sin­gle mem­ber of the pack is injured or killed.

Not only peo­ple but any small live stock you may have – chick­ens, rab­bits, goats etc. – are at greater risk.

Packs of fer­al and near-fer­al dogs are already in many states. That will only get worse.

Some will be set “free” by their own­ers after an SHTF because they don’t have (or can’t afford) to pro­vide for them or take them on escape.
Some will break free.
Some will be aban­doned.

Either way, dog attacks risk will be much greater after an SHTF event.

One more thing to be aware of and pre­pared for.

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