Minnesota
My dog got loose, made it to the neighbor's property, got into a chicken coop that had been left open and killed 5 chickens. These chickens were about a year old and the family considered them to be pets. The neighbors immediately took to social media showing a video of their little boy crying about what had happened to his "birdies" and the tone and vile in the social media posts showed that they were extremely angry. I was fearful of going over there, but I went to apologize and offer to pay for the damages. They said they would get back to me. These are ordinary chickens. These chickens are usually $3-5 when they are young. Grown chickens can sell for $30-50. When they got back to me they said that the cost was $2,000. They also said that I could probably claim the cost on my homeowner's insurance. When I asked how they got to that number they said they had added the cost of the chickens when they bought them (they were hatchlings), the cost of the feed for the last year, an hourly cost that they think they should get compensated for the time they spent raising the chickens since they got them, the cost of electricity to keep the chicken coop warm in the winter, and pain, suffering and trauma. I was fully prepared to pay $50 for each chicken. They are asking $400 per chicken. I feel terrible about the dog killing their chickens, but I think they are asking way too much for damages. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. Thank you.
My dog got loose, made it to the neighbor's property, got into a chicken coop that had been left open and killed 5 chickens. These chickens were about a year old and the family considered them to be pets. The neighbors immediately took to social media showing a video of their little boy crying about what had happened to his "birdies" and the tone and vile in the social media posts showed that they were extremely angry. I was fearful of going over there, but I went to apologize and offer to pay for the damages. They said they would get back to me. These are ordinary chickens. These chickens are usually $3-5 when they are young. Grown chickens can sell for $30-50. When they got back to me they said that the cost was $2,000. They also said that I could probably claim the cost on my homeowner's insurance. When I asked how they got to that number they said they had added the cost of the chickens when they bought them (they were hatchlings), the cost of the feed for the last year, an hourly cost that they think they should get compensated for the time they spent raising the chickens since they got them, the cost of electricity to keep the chicken coop warm in the winter, and pain, suffering and trauma. I was fully prepared to pay $50 for each chicken. They are asking $400 per chicken. I feel terrible about the dog killing their chickens, but I think they are asking way too much for damages. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. Thank you.
