So lately, my 25lb border collie keeps looking up at the sky and barking wildly at large birds. I thought she was just acting silly until today, I see a large vulture with about a 6' wing span patrol my backyard roughly 4' above ground level. Very intimating bird at such a close range.

I read where both Black and Turkey will attack and kill small animals. I also read where it is a $15K fine along with 6 months if I kill one of the nasty suckers.

Question, how do I get rid of the pest without fanfare? I live on a 1 acre track, secluded, not that secluded for gun shooting.

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I also read where it is a $15K find along with 6 months if I kill one of the nasty suckers.

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Guilty.....

Get a bigger dog?

Seriously, they say dead buzzard decoys will keep them away. I've heard the real thing does wonders, so the decoys may do something.

A black or turkey vulture is not going to attack a border collie. They are clumsy birds that would far more likely to be killed by the dog than visa versa. They have been know to eat eggs and newborn baby animals, but that's about it.

You are seriously worrying for no reason.

Your dog will be fine.

They are natures clean up crew. Much more useful than small dogs.....

Seriously77 said:

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I read where both Black and Turkey will attack and kill small animals.

I wish I had the laughing so hard I'm crying emoji. User name doesn't check out.

Seriously, a buzzard isn't going to take on a 25 pound border collie.

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Only one thing that can protect your pooch...

The coyote vest!

Buzzards will attack small animals if hungry enough.

Ciy raised people with their google type answers is not what I am looking for. Please reframe if you can't answer the question without being a smarty pants.

I have seen buzzards attack and carry off small animals, fly high into the sky, and drop them like a sack of potatoes.


anyone know a decent way to eliminate the starker without getting in trouble please help!

Seriously77 said:

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Buzzards will attack small animals if hungry enough.

Ciy raised people with their google type answers is not what I am looking for. Please reframe if you can't answer the question without being a smarty pants.

I have seen buzzards attack and carry off small animals, fly high into the sky, and drop them like a sack of potatoes.


anyone know a decent way to eliminate the starker without getting in trouble please help!

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You really think a 5 pound bird is going to pick up your 25 pound dog.

Seriously77 said:

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Buzzards will attack small animals if hungry enough.

Ciy raised people with their google type answers is not what I am looking for. Please reframe if you can't answer the question without being a smarty pants.

I have seen buzzards attack and carry off small animals, fly high into the sky, and drop them like a sack of potatoes.


anyone know a decent way to eliminate the starker without getting in trouble please help!

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High tensil small diameter wire strung 8 foot high or so across yard. Not your fault if bird hits your clothes line.

Every time I'm driving out I20 West, past Weatherford, I think, and I see those big cell towers at dusk with hundreds of those big nasty bastages on there roosting. My 22-250 starts to itch....

* and if you hate your job. Doesn't someone have to clean those big towers? The ones covered in hundreds of crapping vultures.

I live on a one acre tract. My kids shot pellets guns "close" to them up in the pine trees. They moved their roost somewhere else. None died.

Since you have seen it happen, it would help to know which one you actually saw ;-) it makes a difference, one is know to actually take small prey very occasionally.....the other would be extremely rare. One hunts almost exclusively by sight, the other almost exclusively by scent. So which one are you seeing. Black vulture you might have a small issue, turkey vulture whoopie do.

Seriously77 said:

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Buzzards will attack small animals if hungry enough.

Ciy raised people with their google type answers is not what I am looking for. Please reframe if you can't answer the question without being a smarty pants.

I have seen buzzards attack and carry off small animals, fly high into the sky, and drop them like a sack of potatoes.


anyone know a decent way to eliminate the starker without getting in trouble please help!

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What? I've seen a lot of buzzards in my time, and I've never seen them pick up anything.

Only time I've seen buzzards go after a living animal was newborn calves. And then it seems to just be the eyes they're after for some reason. Oh, and they get shot for trying.

Can I bring my BSC Golden over? Maybe that vulture and his buddies can carry him away and leave your dog along.

I was born and raised in the country and live and work daily on our ranch in the hill country. We commonly have turkey vultures and from time to time black vultures. Our house is on the side of a large hill/cliff line that runs along the creek below our house and there is a large meadow area of grass along that creek. The buzzards fly along that cliff and mountain face to get the updrafts from the prevailing southerly winds. In that meadow below we keep a few feeders and have mama's and their baby's come to those feeders everyday. We have both livestock and many species of deer and exotics. We spend a lot of our daily life working and managing our ranch and being out in our pastures. I have never witnessed a buzzard catching or killing a healthy baby animal or small animal.
In fact all the mamas and baby's pay no attention whatsoever to the buzzards that may fly only 15-20 feet above them in that meadow.
I have seen baby buzzards in their nest/den on the ground which is very unique. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Buzzards are natures disposall and serve a great purpose and are wired to eat and consume carrion....nasty job but I am grateful they do it.

Just lost a good dog to cancer, not taking any chances.

A buzzard can probably lift 10x it's body weight, think antlike strength as it rips flesh off of bones or even eagle or hawk strength flying its prey off. I won't have it for my little BC.





Thanks for the help.

Cut and copied pic and it didn't stick. Using an iPhone. I will get my wife to post it when she gets home but maybe not.

This has to be a troll, amirite?

zooguy96 said:

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This has to be a troll, amirite?

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Has to be. A flock of buzzards will dodge traffic to eat a dead squirrel on the highway because they can't lift it. But this guy is claiming 10X raptor like strength.

There is a better chance of a Wild Turkey flying away with your dog.

Do Cara Cara decoy towards buzzard activity?

Seriously77 ...I don't mean to doubt what you supposedly have witnessed but thought you would like to know some facts about buzzards. I will attach some web sites for you to check out these facts.

" Buzzards feet have evolved to be weak and flat to hold down the carrion as they tear it with their beeks. Their feet are poorly adapted to grasping and the talons are also not designed for grasping as they are relatively blunt."

"Turkey vultures have extremely weak feet and blunt talons."

" Legs and feet are weak compared to other raptors like hawks and eagles and do not have the ability to grasp and fly with carrion or mass. This why they eat and regurgitate their food for their young rather than their raptor counterparts that take the prey to the nest for consumption."

"They mate for life."

Sources: Wilkepedia, www.hawkwatch.com., www.pennstate.edu.com

Stick93....you are so right. Always all kind of myths.....

Damn city folk
I was on ask jeeves and it said buzzards eat cookies and that was how passive died

stick...you are so right. I have watched a red tail hawk pick up a dead rabbit and fly off while the buzzards just hop around and flap their wings trying to run the red tail off. I am an old and have been lucky to be able to be in the country a lot. Was a TAMU WFS guy and been blessed to spend a lot of time in Gods creation and I have never witnessed a buzzard fly off with anything...no mouse or hunk of meat or whatever. I have seen them go to a calf or mama cow that is having a bad birth with lots of blood on the ground but its the smell that attracts them. About three weeks ago I had a whitetail doe and her fawn lying in the shade by one of our feeders. The buzzards like to roost on a tower blind nearby and there were two of them sitting on it and they never bothered the fawn nor did mama seem to care that they were there. I kicked a good friend off our land for shooting a buzzard while dove hunting. They are protected for a reason.

ursusguy said:

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Since you have seen it happen, it would help to know which one you actually saw ;-) it makes a difference, one is know to actually take small prey very occasionally.....the other would be extremely rare. One hunts almost exclusively by sight, the other almost exclusively by scent. So which one are you seeing. Black vulture you might have a small issue, turkey vulture whoopie do.

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This man knows what he is talking about. His words are bankable on issues like these.

If you just want ideas on how to discretely off the bird- you likely won't get any legit responses, given that it is highly illegal and this is the internet.

If you are looking to scare the bird away- you have a couple suggestions on this thread already. I think stringing up some wire to prevent it from being able to fly low in your yard is actually a good (if not cumbersome) idea.

In any case- a 25lb fast moving dog does not qualify as "small prey", nor would the vulture be able take it unless the pup was somehow otherwise disabled. Perhaps it is smelling something dead, or searching for something, and scaring your dog by happenstance. No disrespect to you or your dog at all- but if I and my dog were in your shoes, I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over this. And I love my dog to pieces.

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Buzzards will attack small animals if hungry enough.

Ciy raised people with their google type answers is not what I am looking for. Please reframe if you can't answer the question without being a smarty pants.

I have seen buzzards attack and carry off small animals, fly high into the sky, and drop them like a sack of potatoes.

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City raised? What the hell does that have to do with anything.

I'll be glad to give you my "bird" credentials. My dad was a chemist for Shell Oil and was one hell of an amateur ornithologist. I've been around birds all my life. Ironically enough, my wife was Executive Director of Houston Audubon for 5 years. I may not be the worlds greatest ornithologist, but I'm not half bad. I even read ornithologist journals to this day.

Oh, and I have a BS in Chemistry and a doctorate. I'm fairly good at math.

Speaking of which, lets do some. A turkey vulture averages about 3.3 lbs and a black vulture 3.4 lbs.

A bird weighing less than 3.5 lbs is not going to fly off with a 25 lb dog. 7-8 lbs would be an absolute limit. Regardless if city or country raised, anybody who thinks a 3.4 lb bird can fly away with a 25 lb dog has a vivid imagination or listens to goofy ass sources.

Team buzzard.

You'd have a lot more credibility if you worked at BP in the energy corridor. Up close and personal with all the buzzards of West Houston.

When it comes to wildlife issues these days "I grew up in the country" is as big a disqualifier as "I am a hunter". See snake and mountain lion id. Not kidding.

There was a time that most Aggies had "grown up the country" and all got degrees from such.

Seriously77 said:

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Just lost a good dog to cancer, not taking any chances.

A buzzard can probably lift 10x it's body weight, think antlike strength as it rips flesh off of bones or even eagle or hawk strength flying its prey off. I won't have it for my little BC.





Thanks for the help.

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Sorry about your recent loss, but those statements about vulture strength are tacitly false.

Lammergier's (aka bearded vultures) are probably the basis for the myth of vultures dropping small animals from height to kill them and they are much stronger and larger than our blacks and turkey vultures and do not occur anywhere in North or South America.

You are worried about an issue that will never come to fruition. Your dog is barking because it is territorial and if those vultures came anywhere near that dog, it is the vulture that would be in trouble.

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A bird weighing less than 3.5 lbs is not going to fly off with a 25 lb dog. 7-8 lbs would be an absolute limit. Regardless if city or country raised, anybody who thinks a 3.4 lb bird can fly away with a 25 lb dog has a vivid imagination or listens to goofy ass sources.

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"It could grab it by the husk!"

Wait, wild turkeys can carry off small dogs?

I need to re-think my decoy set up next spring.