neighborhood kids

Lowstorm · Jun 3, 2018

Its summer, and a neighborhood kid has come a-wandering...

And let out 2 of my silver-spotted mutts! :evil: Luckily they've been tamed enough that it didn't take much to catch them....

But the latch for my cage door is missing now, and I'm constantly checking on the cage. GRR! I'm pissed. I don't want to padlock the cage, but I may have to! I got lucky he didn't grab my very timid little one. I never would have caught her! Its butchering time too, so soon I'll be down to just two bunnies. We're moving soon, so I butchered out all the adults, all the mid-age, and only have 1 litter left-the 2 he released were my 2 females I'm keeping from my silver-spot project!!!!! Seriously, wtf. Couldn't he have picked up and dropped the stupid black ones I don't want to keep?!?! They're even friendlier than the spotted ones!

Maybe I should have posted this in hopping mad lol. But, it falls under 'security'. This kid is 4, wandering across a road to get to my house! I told him multiple times already he cannot be over here unless an adult is out. But there's no supervision at all! Do I really have to padlock the cage?

MaggieJ · Jun 3, 2018

If you want to keep your rabbits safe, then yes, you'll have to lock the cages. A four-year-old is not of an age to take responsibility for his actions nor will he remember from one week to the next what he is forbidden to do.

Have you spoken to the parents? Is the child at risk? How soon do you move? These are all things to take into consideration when deciding what to do.

akane · Jun 3, 2018

I thought a double lot yard would at least be an ok compromise for now living in city limits but it's mostly useless. Even with the gates chained shut to the backyard I'd need to drop a few thousand dollars on the best fence the city will allow to prevent climbing thefts. I brought back a pair of standard chins from Minnesota to eastern Iowa and had the buck stolen. For awhile I had them on the screen porch but with the door not locking I didn't even want to keep them there. I think it was the kids that wander around after school that got in my truck and pulled out the 2 pellet rifles and other objects to leave in the yard. It would be questionable keeping anything outside of the locked house if it weren't for my barking alarms. After a few months of my 80lb akita threatening every voice that strayed on to our property people have quit messing with anything outside of reach of the sidewalk. Our mail did disappear once but they don't appear to have been back.

Even in the middle of nowhere I had to padlock the chicken coops for awhile because an entire coop of bantams closed up for the night disappeared before morning without a trace. I would have to assume humans. There are just less humans around and farther they have to walk on to the property when living in the country but it doesn't guarantee the safety of anything. There's a reason that even when surrounded by 80acres of their own land my uncle's shotgun from 50years ago was still sitting on some horseshoes over the front door when we cleaned up the house for me to move into for awhile.

Marie28 · Jun 6, 2018

Yicks! I would go for pad locks! You could buy they ones that have the sliding numbers so you dont have to use a key. We have our rabbit in the car port currently. We use carabiners (the key chain latch kind) its not a lock but It makes it slightly more of a job to open and I dont think any real young kid would figure it out...

I also worry about this childs lack of supervision. :O

Deer Heart · Jun 8, 2018

Yet another person chiming in with padlocks being a big yes. I padlock my stuff even with a no-climb perimeter fence, various trespass signs, and lgds. Two legged predators are your worst, most ruthless predators, and all it takes is one brazen enough to try anyway. RN my local facebook groups have a warning out because people have been jumping fences and stealing entire flocks of birds and herds of livestock in the middle of the night and because of it, I may be adding hot-wire or barbed-wire across the top of my fences.

Additionally, I do wonder why the heck a 4 year old is being allowed to wander unsupervised across a street. I really can't expect a kid that young to comprehend or follow anything you tell them so I hope you've spoken to the parents or at least contacted authorities if the parents were spoken to but the random kid still pops up in your yard, especially if they're causing harm to your property (though I also wouldn't just assume it was any specific person without witnessing it. Your post does not suggest whether or not you saw your perpetrator or the act itself.)

Lowstorm · Feb 5, 2019

So I never did reply. Later that day, right after posting that, I went and got a lock for the cage. Plus the neighbor kid got in a lot more trouble. I went and 'told on him' to grandma, cause he was climbing the other neighbor's ladder, up onto the roof of their garage. He moved back with his parents a week or so later, the little crap.

And now we've moved.

Just had my first litters from mommas, and a new buck (He's gorgeous, the moms have turned into amazing moms, and yeah!)