while it is legal to kill a domestic dog for molesting livestock, ranchers know the best policy is
"shoot fast, bury deep, don't talk."
Actually the idea of pulling out a carry pistol and blasting away at a guy with a gun trying to rob me in a parking lot isn't really "an appealing one to me" either.The idea of pulling out a carry pistol and blasting away at a coyote in a backyard is not an appealing one to me.
Had a bunch of 'coon hounds massacre all of our kittens one night hooked up to a bunch of hunters hunting on our land without permission. My dad had the Universal in hand that night as well but he knew the relative value of a trained hunting dog vs a bunch of kittens. He was extremely mad and locked those dogs in our milk house with all the dead kittens and made the hunters come up and ask for the dogs back and told them to stay off the property. He wisely had the gun pointed at the ground through it all...the hunters had their guns in hand as well but cool heads prevailed. Had he shot one of those dogs, there'd been trouble.
Human life trumps my dog; my dog trumps ANY law.