Hi there,
Bought 440 acres of farm (fallow for 75 years and needs tons of rehab) and forest in the Adirondack park, NY and moved my family up here 4 years ago. I don’t hunt. Every year during deer hunting season the neighbor clan and their friends take to poaching my property. Put up camera? They steal it. Posted signs? Torn down. Night (spotlighting) hunting, shooting from the road on thanksgiving; check. Rutting up my field picking up a buck they poached; check. Allow others to hunt, hasn’t changed anything.
Well, I found one of their cameras on my land with some of the usual suspects’ faces on it from where they set it up beginning of November. Turned it in. Filed charges. Then Wednesday before thanksgiving my “dog of a lifetime” defends my chickens against a fox with two others, running the fox into the woods… and I hear a close gunshot. Only two of my dogs return. Have not turned up a body despite extensive searching in an organized pattern across the property with help of my remaining dogs. Nothing. Posted fliers, took out google and Facebook ads, went door to door in a 30 mile radius without a sign or a single lead. So realistically shot by a poacher on my land.
Then this morning I hear another shot on my property with fresh snow down. Track it to offending family next door with tracks walking past my no trespassing sign onto my property and shooting a coyote, and then proceeding deeper into my land….
So what to do? I’m sure some of you have dealt with stuff like this before. I’m upset, non violent, and mainly sad about this dog that was truly my best friend, and would appreciate thoughts on how to solve this.