My neighbors have been killing animals for years, and nobody cares. What would you do?
There’s a family that lives about 1 km away from our house. Three generations live in the same building: the grandfather, his son, and the son’s two boys.
The grandfather once put out poisoned food for the neighborhood cats and dogs. As far as I know, it killed two dogs and I don’t even know how many cats.
His son isn’t any better. Every time migratory birds pass through the area, he goes out with his air rifle and shoots at them. He always carries it with him. He also really hates stray dogs. Every time a dog walks near his house, even if it’s just on the public road and not on his property, he shoots at it. His excuse is always the same: he says the rifle is weak and doesn’t kill the dogs, that it just “sends them a message” not to come back.
He has two sons, and he’s raised them the same way. When the older boy was around 10 or 11 years old, he gave him the same air rifle. It’s like he gives his kids guns the way other parents give them iPads. When that boy was around 11, he shot a cat while treating it like a game. Nobody in the family said anything about it. He was always shooting birds around the neighborhood too.
That boy is now an adult, and his younger brother, who’s around 11 now, also has the same air rifle. Basically everyone in that family has one, and they all shoot birds and other animals around the neighborhood.
Two days ago, one of them shot another dog.
I’ve tried talking to the father several times over the years and asked him to stop shooting dogs, but he never listens. He’s a completely awful person, and I live in a third-world country where I feel like I can’t do anything about it. I’ve even filed a police report before, but it went nowhere. The authorities don’t seem to care, and unfortunately this kind of behavior is normalized in my town.
I’m honestly at my breaking point. I’ve watched this family poison animals, shoot birds for fun, and teach their children to do the same for years without facing any consequences. I’m angry, frustrated, and I feel completely powerless.
I can’t just take every stray dog to a shelter because the shelters are already overloaded. I keep thinking about how unfair it is that these people never face any consequences while innocent animals keep suffering.
What would you do if the authorities refuse to act? Is there any way to make people like this face consequences?
I don’t want to get caught. I even thought about putting dog shit all over their cars, but they’d probably suspect it was me, and I’m worried it would just make them hate dogs even more. I have two dogs at home, and I don’t want them to end up getting hurt because of something I did.