Paintballs or BB's?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm going to start shooting all these fucking animals who keep coming into my fenced backyard and knocking over my garbage cans and digging under my fence and killing wildlife under my deck. And the ones that sneak up on my in unfenced front yard while I'm working in my flower garden.

Long story short, Kink is done with this shit.

Was gonna get a bb gun, but the husband says they're not very accurate. I'm a good shot, I want an accurate gun.

Then I thought about paintball guns. It's not so hard to put a paintball where you want, I've done it. And you can strafe with paintballs. I don't think you can do that with a bb. I figure I can put a paintball short gun into my gardening stuff and keep it handy.

A stray bb might hurt someone or permanently injure an animal. A dog covered with drying paint, however, sends a clear message to the owner. And a stray paintball isn't likely to 1. Happen 2. Harm anyone.

Thoughts?

I put it over here instead of at CS because I don't want to hear how awful I am for shooting at dogs and cats with a gun. I mean, you can feel free to tell me, just understand I don't really care. I've reached the end of my patience with irresponsible pet owners these past two weeks.

And good models of paintball guns? Or anyone recommend the bb's instead?

[HYHYBT]

If you're looking to send a message, consider what message will actually be received: not "somebody's fed up with my pet bothering their stuff; I'd better keep it inside," but far more likely "OMG some nut/animal hater/general posterior orifice is going around dumping paint on animals for fun! What's the world coming to?"

If the goal is to harm the animals, well, fine, you don't care. But you *should* care that you're punishing an animal for its owner's error. (NOT, or not necessarily, carelessness or anything other than lack of knowledge that their animal is causing you trouble.)

They make trash cans that seal. They make wire to cover the gap under a porch. It's not that hard to fix a fence so that dogs won't dig under it. You have better options.

[AdminAssistant]

Kink shouldn't have to buy new trash cans. Pet owners should control their damn animals. If you've tried to handle the matter with a talk to the owners or with the police and it's done no good, then a paintball will cause no serious harm. Neither will a BB aimed at the ground near the animal (yes, it can ricochet but it's unlikely.)

Honestly (and I say this as someone who grew up in the country), if I had strange animals on my property, I wouldn't be handling this as well as you are. You never know if an animal is tame, stray, feral, what kinds of diseases it could carry, or if it has a tendency to bite. It may seem cruel to some, but you can't screw around with things like rabies.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, put it this way. I have no intention of fencing my front yard. I also have no intention of being hassled in my own front yard again while I'm minding my own business by a sneaky dog who want to bite me from behind.

My next door neighbors aren't really into the idea of the expense of fencing their front yards, either. And they're sick of cleaning up dogshit.

And even if we were, we all own over an acre of fenced yard each in the back, and that's evidently not helping. That's a hell of a lot of fence to have to reinforce and repair.

Not sure how the onus of this is on us due to one lazy douchebag's inability to respect leash laws.

I'm not trying to hurt the dog. I don't mind stinging his backbiting ass a bit, just to remind him that my yard is not a fun place to be. If I send him home covered in paint, the message is "I thought the shotgun would be a little overkill."

Dog gets out on a regular basis and is aggressive. I'm thinking his owner, who I had a word with a couple hours ago, might get sick of giving him a bath. This is my second encounter with this particular guy. He's "sorry" but he so far has not fixed the problem.

If I honestly didn't care about hurting the animal, the animal would already be dead. I'm just saying. The fucker came at me in my own yard while my back was turned. I would have no problem killing him if my kid were anywhere nearby, but I would really rather not go down that road. What I don't care about, really, is the idea that I shouldn't take steps to secure my property and that I'm a horrible person for wanting to peg an aggressive backbiter with boundary issues in the ass with something that stings.

All I wanna know is the best tool for the job. The job's gonna get done one way or the other. I was just looking at wrist rockets on Amazon a little while ago, so that's now in the running.

The husband suggested firecrackers, but that takes too much set up time. However, a firecracker shot out of a wristrocket...hmmm....

And probably gonna get some pepper spray in case I need to use it on the owner.

As for the rabies thing...yeah. I got bit by a feral cat about two years ago on the ankle inside my fenced back yard. Fun times.

I dont' have a lot of patience.

[gremcint]

water hose, water gun?
ice cold water. water balloons.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/60b6/

[RecoveringKinkoid]

That freaking rocket launcher is a thing of beauty. Where was that when I had a job?

Alas, need heavier ordnance. The dog that keeps digging under my fence (yeah, I have a total of three of these fuckers as of this writing. Those are the ones I know about.) is a large great dane looking bastard and I must be able to propel ammo through heavy underbrush hard enough to get the attention of a hundred pound dog. Think jungle warfare and uruk-hai.

Good thought, though, I should have yanked the sprinkler head out of the ground and started fanfiring. It might have worked. Certainly would have given the neighbors something to talk about.

[gremcint]

Heavier ordinance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GAUnuuBkW4

can you maybe get and invisible fence and start triggering it whenever he comes over?

my understanding of them is emit a sound when the trigger crosses them which you would attach to the dog regularly but there must be some way to remote trigger some of them.

[Nyoibo]

I'd go the painball, it won't cause permanent injury and it'll hit hard enough to make the animal take notice.

[Andara Bledin]

I would very, very strongly suggest against bb guns for animal control.

Sure, most of the time they just bounce, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get under the skin and lead to infection that will as like as not result in a long and painful death.

Plus, there's always the chance of a bad ricochet. We had a neighbor a couple of houses over that liked to shoot birds with his bb gun. He managed to send a ricochet into another back yard and nearly put out the eye of a girl living there.

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah. Okay. Wow.

Gonna go with paintball. Not trying to seriously injure an animal, and I sure don't want to be having bb's flying around ricocheting. I want to scare the animals, make them yelp and run, and cause their owners some inconvenience and maybe give them a little food for thought. They do sting when they hit, but on a dog with fur, it might not even leave a bruise.

I found out there is a paintball headquarters literally within a mile or two of where I live.

And heck, I played paintball when I was younger, it might be fun excuse to do it again.

[telecom_goddess]

can you maybe get and invisible fence and start triggering it whenever he comes over?

my understanding of them is emit a sound when the trigger crosses them which you would attach to the dog regularly but there must be some way to remote trigger some of them.

Why should Kink get an invisible fence? That's the dog owner's responsibility, it's also their responsibility to fence their own animals in. This sounds fairly rural and yeah animals should have a chance to run free in the country but they need to be fenced in their own yards....

I like the paintball idea...it doesn't sound like it will hurt (although I would research that thoroughly so you don't hurt someone and get sued or something). If that were happening to me I'd be pissed....I don't like other people's kids or animals destroying my property or living space or garden or whatever.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, it's a rural neighborhood, if that makes sense. It's a long cul de sack, and looks like any other neighborhood except that the lots are from an acre to two or three acres. Most of the lots are long or wedge shaped, so what you have is a line of houses with large yards, close enough together to look like a house lined street, but with a little breathing room between them.

It's not like the dog left one farm and wandered onto another. It's not like that. It's like if you were puttering around in front of your house looking at your flower bed and were being harassed by assholes on the street. And we have leash laws in this county. When the shit went down last night, it was witnessed by several of my neighbors, one of whom told me the dog is out A LOT and shits in her yard all the time. I found a log in mine last night about twenty minutes before the dog came up behind me.

I suppose you could probably hurt someone with a paintball, sure, but mostly they just sting and they might leave a little welt or a bruise, depending on where they hit you. I played paintball with real soldiers. Needless to say, I used to get hit early and often. I was less like a player and more like a practice dummy.

[gremcint]

Why should Kink get an invisible fence? That's the dog owner's responsibility, it's also their responsibility to fence their own animals in. This sounds fairly rural and yeah animals should have a chance to run free in the country but they need to be fenced in their own yards....

I like the paintball idea...it doesn't sound like it will hurt (although I would research that thoroughly so you don't hurt someone and get sued or something). If that were happening to me I'd be pissed....I don't like other people's kids or animals destroying my property or living space or garden or whatever.

I'm suggesting an alternative to the paintball. yes it's the owner's responsibility but the owner isn't doing anything.

whether kinkoid goes with the paintball or the invisible fence kinkoid is still spending the money and putting the time out so how is this any different? I mean why aren't you asking why kinkoid has get paintball stuff as controlling the animal is the owners responsibility?

[the_std]

I mean why aren't you asking why kinkoid has get paintball stuff as controlling the animal is the owners responsibility?

Probably because most of us know Kink well enough to assume that she's not going to jump straight to wanton cruelty if she has not already exhausted every other possible option. If it's a matter of personal safety (did you miss the part where the dog ATTACKED HER when her back was turned) I wouldn't blame her for wanting to have something beside her to protect herself. It's not like she's trying to kill the thing.

You also have to think of the fact that she has a young daughter, and has to minimize the risk to her daughter as much as possible.

To me, a paintball gun sounds like as good a solution as any you have available to you.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Okay. Invisible fence will probably start at around a thousand bucks. It does not keep dogs out, it keeps dogs who are wearing a radio collar in. Usually, but not always, because some dogs are thick and the fence doesn't work on them. Plus, the dog must be trained to respect the fence.

In other words, it might work if the idiot owner got off his ass and installed on on HIS property.

On the other hand, the pump action paintball gun, the handful of CO2 cartridges, and the fifty paintballs I purchased today at Dick's, plus the wrist rocket I picked up in case I have to get ugly about it, cost me about fifty bucks. I'd forgotten how fun slingshots are. I took a small branch out of a tree with it about an hour ago. Like I said, I'm a good shot. Freaking satisfying.

I found out today from my mom that the last time she showed up here with my daughter (I wasn't home, mom was picking up the Kinklet and keeping her till I got home) this same dog showed up in my driveway and was so aggressive my mom was afraid to get out of the car. And the idiot owner came by and got the dog and said "Oh, she gets out all the time."

No shit, she gets out all the time.

So we're ready this time. Dog's gonna go home painted orange if he comes over here again. Nice little extra about the paintball gun is that it makes a real nice loud pow when it goes off, which bb guns don't do. So the loud noise will make it extra scary. Scary is good. Scary means I don't have to resort to the wrist rocket, which will probably actually do some damage. And you're right, I'm not trying to truly hurt the dog, it's not the dog's fault the owner is a shithead.

What really gets my crank going backwards about all this is yes, I have a small daughter who likes to play in the sprinklers out front when I'm running them. And the dog is sneaky. Obviously, she can't go out there and play until I get this shit taken care of.

Hell, the dog that comes under my fence makes it so I can't even feel safe with my child inside a locked fence out back. His day is coming, too. I'm done fucking playing.