They need to “target” dogs, too. We keep our cats indoors (so they won’t be coyote snacks), but when we had our dog here, he was a bird killing machine. No way to discourage him, either. Everyone is quick to blame cats for bird deaths and maulings, but dogs are just as bad.
I had a Siberian Husky like that. She stayed in the yard though. I don’t have a problem with any non-native animal being removed (killed or otherwise) to protect local native species. It’s too bad that someone, somewhere contributed to the problem by letting their domestic pets run wild.
Gosh, it’s pretty difficult for a dog that is not roaming around to kill many birds. Not impossible (one of my goldens once caught a bird on the fly as it flew out of a bush while we were hunting with her—but it wasn’t a gamebird and we released it none the worse for wear), but unlikely enough that unless they are roaming at large they are probably not killing enough birds to make a dent. I also advocate dogs being kept on their own property and under control.
susie
No they aren't. Sounds like you dog picked up a bad habit which you were unable to break it of. Dogs don't normally become obsessed with killing tweety birds. They do have suppressed natural instincts to hunt rodents and larger game birds like pheasants and grouse. Usually you have to work with them to bring that out. They are quite content to depend on you to fill their dog dish and fetch the stick, which is why dogs are so loyal. It's all about the food dish for them.
Plus, there aren't packs of wild dogs roaming around in numbers anywhere near the numbers feral cats. You might be interested in using google to look up statistics on feral cats and the number of song birds they kill annually.