I seem to be in a little bit of a pickle. I have Australian Cattle Dogs aka Blue Heelers, My neighbor is claiming that My dogs were chasing her cows and caused one to abort.I will give you the set up: They had had the cows preg checked a week prior to the incident and the cows were all in calf 4 to 6 months along. I had approached them about fixing the property line fence and they did not want to help with the installation or cost as they did not see the need in replacing it though the fence was not even knee high and several trees had fallen on it. WHen I spoke to them they did not say anything to me about my dogs having ever been a problem. I replaced the fence and about two days after it was installed I recieved a phone call from the animal controll official saying that my dogs were reported as having been chasing Livestock. I started locking up my dogs so that in my absence I know that they were not into mischive. About a week later I was sent a bill for $850 for the aborted calf, $79 in vet bills and somthing like $150 for the time and labor of fixing the old decrepid fence that thier cows had ran thru. basicly about a $1000. They had not called me to inform me that my dogs may have ben chasing thier animals at all. If they had contacted me I would have gladly done so. Instead they called the police and animal controll into the situation without even talking to me ( the first I had heard of it was when the animal controll official called). I have a court date on the 3rd of December, I do not feel that I should be responsible for the aborted calf as it is a potential loss not a real loss(if they would have killed a calf instead of a featus it would be different) there are other possible causes to the cow aborting, were they vacinated when they were preg checked a week prior? Thier drinking water was disturbed and possibly contaminated with pine needles(can cause abortion) and the cows were on fescue pasture. I think that if they catch my dogs chasing thier cows then it is thier rite to shoot them. But to state that my dogs were the only plausable cause of the cow aborting... Not to plausable...
SO my question is exactly how hard must a cow be chased to cause an abortion?
If one cow aborted because of being chased why didnt the rest of the cows abort?\
How hard is it for them to prove that it was aborted only becasuse of the dogs?
What other possible causes would there be?
Why is it that only after I approached them about replacing fence did my dogs start chasing thier cows? (we have lived here for two and a half years)
Is it because I replaced the fence and they dont want to pay for their share the reason that they are doing this?
any suggestions and comments may be helpfull so please let me know what you think...
Thanks
Jeanne

As both dog owner and cattle owner I hope I can give a balanced view. There are other causes for abortion in cattle besides worrying by dogs,( but a cow doesn't always have to be chased very hard to be stressed enough to abort) e.g. a host of infections and diseases, abnormalities of the foetus, toxins, contaminated water etc. We have had a cow abort after worrying and yes, it's hard to prove. I must say though, that the loss of an unborn calf is a *real* loss, not a potential one. They have not only lost a calf but maybe a whole years work, time and money spent on the cow.

Having said that, yes it seems suspicious that they would suddenly accuse your dogs after 2 and 1/2 years of being neighbours and soon after your altercation over the fence. I would very strongly recommend that you seek legal advice as a professional can give you the right advice for your situation. They might advise testing of the cow to establish whether she has infection and testing of water sources though I think if contaminated water or contagious infection was present the whole herd would be affected.

Kath