Help with identifying animal abuser!

[Kruise]

Hi there, we recently adopted a dog from a local shelter and she loves being a watch dog. Occasionally she barks when someone gets close to our yard. Our yard is on a hill with 3 - 4 neighbors who can see directly into our yard. The dog loves to sit on her perch so she can keep a look out. We've recently noticed welts on her body and her eye has been bothering her, which leads us to believe that someone shot her with an air gun of some sort. We've been looking at a few camera options to try and get to the bottom of this issue, and are asking for your help with selecting a camera setup for our needs.

We're not sure if we need one camera with a wide FOV or multiple camera's to cover the back yard. A single camera with a FOV of about 120-140 could work.

Next comes the image quality, we want something that can help positively ID someone from 30 yards or at least give us an idea of who they are.

Night vision would be nice to have but the quality doesn't have to be stellar.

And to wrap it up we're wondering what kind of IP setup would be ideal for motion detection, scrolling through video logs, and viewing multiple camera's at the same time.

-Thank you

 

[VorlonFrog]

Hi Kruise. Take a look at the Wiki link at the top of the forum pages. While there, find the Cliff Notes icon and read them. Pretty much most of your questions will be answered. My personal recommendation: a single camera would only be good for a wide angle recording of some activity happening. A better setup might be one wide angle recording for use coordinating/monitoring two or three other cameras with narrower but overlapping fields of view. These two or three other cameras would be zoomed in closer to whatever subject areas where you need identification. Best choice is turret cameras, for many reasons. Best choice is also Dahua Starlight cameras, for about $120 to $170 each. The Video Management System (VMS) of choice here for smaller setups is definitely Blue Iris, for about $50. It requires an Intel core i5 or i7 processor with integrated graphics that handle the h.264 video decoding. Inexpensive off-lease systems from ebay typically run from $150 to $250 including a Windows 10 license. Four gigabytes of memory are barely adequate to get by. Eight gigabytes are recommended for best performance. A minimum of a 1 terabyte hard disk drive would store your videos for several days. A 2 TB drive is a better choice. If you can, use a smaller 240 or 500 GB SSD for the Windows 10 system disk and use the entire 2 TB hard disk drive for video.

If that seems like a lot to digest, break it up into smaller bites.
Cameras - video source.
PC - video recorder.
POE ethernet switch - powers cameras and connects them to the PC.
Blue Iris - Video Management Software.
RAM - scratch pad for Windows and Blue Iris.
SSD - system drive for Windows and Blue Iris.
HDD - storage drive for videos

 

[lifeatredline]

I'm all for having good video surveillance running. If some jerk is in fact doing that, I suspect you won't get video evidence unless they are really dumb. If that happened to my dogs, they would only be outside when I am hidden in the yard so I could hear the discharge and determine a direction to send law enforcement. I hope you catch the jerk.

Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

 

[bigredfish]

I'm all for having good video surveillance running. If some jerk is in fact doing that, I suspect you won't get video evidence unless they are really dumb. If that happened to my dogs, they would only be outside when I am hidden in the yard so I could hear the discharge and determine a direction to send ROUNDS. I hope you catch the jerk.

Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

fixed it for ya

 

[tangent]

I would look around to see if you can locate any pellets or BBs.
Don't rule out some other cause like some type of insect bite or sting.

Either way hopefully cameras help you identify the cause or the perpetrator. You may want to take some pictures of the welts and measure them.

 

[tangent]

The dopey ashamed look my childhood dog had after she got stung by some yellow jackets was priceless.
She was killed by a mosquito with West Nile Virus.

 

[TonyR]

If that happened to my dogs, they would only be outside when I am hidden in the yard so I could hear the discharge and determine a direction to send law enforcement.

Still, hard evidence such as a video or another eyewitness would help seal the deal...otherwise, it's your word against theirs.

I hope you catch the jerk.

Me too. For the jerk's sake, he/she better cease and desist or hope LEO gets them before I do. Our coroner is also the local funeral home director.

 

[slip kid]

If the dog is regularly barking at someone in their own yard while they're minding their own business, then the dog is definitely disturbing the peace beyond your boundaries and you need to remedy that. It doesn't matter what excuses any dog owner makes. Period. Since the neighbor has none of the pleasures of owning the dog, they sure as Hades shouldn't be subject to the negatives of the dog. And that goes for smelling dog poop in their own yard too.

 

[bigredfish]

Surely you're not suggesting that justifies shooting the dog with a pellet gun are you?

 

[slip kid]

Surely you're not putting words in my mouth, are you? No. That wouldn't happen in the internet.

 

[NoloC]

Surely you're not putting words in my mouth, are you? No. That wouldn't happen in the internet.

Non answer. What are you saying? Dog is at fault? Society is at fault? Your parents are at fault?

Me , I go with number three.

 

[slip kid]

That's the Saul Alinsky approach from Rules for Radicals. You charge your opponent with a false narrative to put them on the defensive so you can attack them instead of accepting the reality you have been forced to acknowledge. Your purpose is to troll and it takes no imagination to troll. It's just avoidance of responsibility. Responsibility isn't the American way anymore.

Maybe the neighbor is medicated like most Americans today? If your dog is annoying a neighbor by barking at him or smelling up the place with poop, it's your fault, not your neighbor's fault for being annoyed. It's always your fault. Put a bark collar on it to keep the peace. Clean the poop up daily. If your dog gets injured by the medicated neighbor that you're annoying, you still caused the situation. If you care about your animal then protect it. Pet owner's frequently expect other people to tolerate their irresponsibility. And since most Americans out there are on some sort of medication (all meds have side effects) behavior and judgment issues cause the rest of us who aren't medicated problems.
Cat owners letting their animals off their property used to be a bigger problem here until the coyote and fox moved into the neighborhood.

So, yes it's societal. If it feels good do it.

 

[tangent]

I'd consider a visit to the vet. They may be able to rule out other causes and help document things should this eventually end up in some sort of legal proceeding.