Dispute over dead dogs, goats in Rock Rapids, Iowa, won't lead to charges

ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa | Amy Fluit and her family were having a hard time Tuesday believing their neighbor shot their three Saint Bernards instead of calling to tell them the dogs were eating one of his prize goats.

Neither the Fluits nor the neighbor, Mike Bus, face charges in the incident, Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep said.

Bus did not break any laws when he shot the dogs because they presented a threat to his property, the sheriff said. There's also no local ordinance against dogs roaming free.

The problem with farmers with cattle that get loose, they become liabel for any damage the cattle do to other peoples property.

Coming from town one day when I still had the farm, stopped at the cross road and noticed 3 calfs, probably about 10 months old that had found a way to get out of the pasture. (the cattle farm was on the corner. Drove in and informed him his cattle were loose....he called his dog into the pickup and he followed me to where the cattle were on a neighbors lawn munching, It was interesting because he let the dog out of the pickup and those cows knew exactly where the hole in the fence and scooted right back to the hole they came out of.

Had a friend that raise Angus and she would have problems chasing her cattle when occasionally the electric fence would go down. What ticked her off was it always seem to be when her husband was at work....(friend of my husbands and worked at Michigan Bell before the breakup of ATT and baby bells were invented by the government as they thought ATT was too big. All state bells were under ATT.

Except he wasn’t working for NatGeo at the time and wasn’t arrested for flying over the property.

“We had an obligation to the property owner, since they had driven on the property without permission and it was clearly posted.”

Agricultural eco-terrorism is a problem in many farm states. I’m glad they were arrested.

Just because it’s out in the boondocks and nobody seems to be around doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want on somebody’s property. There is always some urban ninny that thinks property rights don’t apply “out in the country”.

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