Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management BW Quail

TJ, I find it necessary to manage feral cats and also dogs. I hate the idea of shooting dogs. However one year they got so numerous on my place that deer avoided food plots and feeders.

Rant coming: I consider people letting their dogs run free the ultimate rudeness. The other rudeness, actually cruelty, is town people dumping unwanted dogs in the country. They have almost no chance of survival. One bunch of neighbors dogs enjoyed chasing horses and cows. I'm convinced that neighbors dogs ran a colt into a barbed wire fence. That cost me around $800 in vet bills. When talking to neighbors does no good, I take care of the problem myself. A lot of the Ranchers around me kill every dog they find on their property. I once had a talk with the County Sheriff about the problem. He told me that he had never considered me the kind of guy who bothered him with that kind of stuff and that he didn't have enough deputies to deal with it. He told me to just take care of the problem and keep my mouth shut. I HATE "managing" other people "pets". It makes me physically sick when I do it.

Texas has a law that lets us lower our property tax called a Wildlife Exemption. It is much like an Ag Exemption. We have to practice 4 of 7 qualifications to maintain the exemption. Along with food plots, water holes, brush piles, bird houses, and a couple of others we can elect to shoot feral dogs and cats along with other non native animals like pigs.