What would you do if someone threatened to harm your pet if you don't keep it confined?

If anyone threatened to harm my lovable Labrador I would keep him confined, alert the police, and possibly move.

Take note of it, possibly alert the authorities, but it is in the long run up to you to control your own animals.
Our cat is an inside cat,just for that reason, our next door neighbour complains of peoples cats pooping in his flower bed and wants them trapped and gotten rid of, we are very happy to keep ours inside where we know she is safe from any kind of harm.

That depends on why did s/he say that.

If my pet has actually done something wrong, threatened the person, or done some damage, then I’d apologize and try confine my pet, and make sure it does not harm or threaten others again.

If such a statement was said out of spite or because they simply don’t like my pet, I’d ignore it.

Tell him about the torture dungeon in my cellar and that I know when his kids come home from school everyday.

I agree with @Sneki2

Especially in regards to menacing dogs. Dogs that are allowed to run loose, chase neighbors pets, bark, bite, or threaten others and their pets need to be confined and/or the owner needs to be cited. If my pet, ( hypothetically, I don’t own a dog ) was causing issues for a neighbor and someone had threatened to harm them I would make sure they were kept confined to my yard/property. Where I live here in the CA. hills it is legal to shoot dogs that are worrying or harassing livestock.

I would not hesitate to shoot a dog that was threatening my animals. If you love your pet and have respect for others you do not allow your animal to run loose.
Same goes for cats in a neighborhood that are digging and spraying on other peoples properties. I love cats but nobody wants someones cat crapping in their flowerbeds, their kids sandbox, spraying their house, car, etc.

Same with dogs. I once had a neighbor that let their dog lift its leg on my cars tires every morning when walking it.Just let it walk right into my driveway and piss on my car. I confronted them one morning and told them off. They started walking on the other side of the street after that. haha

Keep it on your property.

If it’s off the property, keep it confined.

There is no excuse for your pet running free.

If the dog is running around the neighborhood I would keep it in my yard, unless I was walking it on a leash, or had it at a dog park where it’s allowed to run free. That’s usually the law, so I’m assuming it’s the law where you are.

Or, are you keeping it on your property and the neighbor is still threatening to harm the dog for some reason?

Just to go further, I’d apologize if I was in the wrong, and tell my neighbor to call if he sees the dog out, explain that my intention is always to confine my dog, and I’d give him my number.

I’d also record the date and time the threat was made.

Details details.
On the one hand, we had a neighbor threaten our dog when I was a child. I lived on a farm. We had several cats, and one border collie. BCs by nature chase and direct critters, but they don’t hunt. Our BC chased rabbits, cattle, me and my brother, and whatever else he could find. He never once brought home a carcass of any kind. Our cats were always dragging around squirrels they got, mice, birds. Our neighbor said our dog was killing his sheep, and threatened to kill him. My dad told him to go to hell, then went around town telling what was up, so he could face community scorn.

On the other hand, I have been accosted many times by dogs living in town. I always managed to get them to back down, but in each case, I was prepared to kill the curr if I had too.
Resposible handling, and knowing the temperment of the breed are key.

I would build a stronger fence. When I had a dog, I had a double fence with a double gate to make sure people would walk in one gate, close it, and then enter the yard where the dog was.and close that gate.

Thanks to everyone above who stressed the importance of being a responsible pet owner.

Until about 18 months ago, different cats could regularly be seen roaming our property, crapping on the lawn, etc. One beautiful Sunday morning my wife opened the kitchen shade to see baby squirrel intestines and blood all over our back patio. A cat was still walking around with intestines hanging from its mouth.

She went on the neighborhood website to complain about this, and some dim-bulb woman responded that she could not understand why anyone would complain, and that her cat would probably come home, except that she “suspected that someone was feeding it” (whatever-the-hell that logic is supposed to mean).

I responded that her neighbors should not have to constantly pick up cat excrement from their lawns, hear horrible feline howling and screeching from the dark late at night, clean up trash from torn-open bags on garbage night, and CERTAINLY not have to discover and clean up baby squirrel blood and guts from their private patio.

My wife learned from County Animal Control that you can borrow an animal trap, then take what you caught to them. If an owner shows up to retrieve their pet, they will have to pay a fine to get it back. She posted this information on the website.

Magically, we almost never see cats walking around since then.

It’s called accountability. This is not complicated, and shouldn’t be in any way.difficult to understand…...

^^ In addition to the above, our neighbors leave food outside for their free-roaming cats which attracts wild animals, namely skunks!

@YARNLADY The hits just keep on comin’, don’t they ??

We probably should just be grateful that thoughtless stupidity isn’t more common than it already is…

@PullMyFinger Yep, but if you do trap any cats it would also be fair to post a description of the cats trapped on your HO’s website so the offending parties can go bail out their rascally little puss and hopefully start keeping them inside. The poor cats are not at fault for doing cat things like pooping, marking territory and catching little rodenty things. The yowling at night sounds like unaltered cats scraping, maybe there are some feral cats lurking too.
In actual neighborhoods the owners need to keep them in or under outside supervision.

I live on a 7 acre horse property so no issue with my cats going out for a little early morning Gopher hunt. haha

@Coloma I am in complete agreement, and would never harm (or threaten to harm) someone else’s pet. Animals do what they instinctively do.

Sometimes I fantasize about harming their owners, but that’s a psychiatric confession probably best left for some other day….

@PullMyFinger Haha, Well..I admit to secretly wishing the UPS guy would run over my neighbors yappy Chihuahua and how I would have to feign empathy. ” Oooh, that’s so sad, poor little Jo.” LMAO!

@Coloma As lousy as I am at feigning empathy, I think I’ll just tip my hat to you today, and be grateful for the many kind and thoughtful neighbors that we do have….

P.S. For the most part, I love dogs…...but yappy Chihuahuas…...um….....not so much…..

Keep it on my own property which I should have been doing all along.

Wait for a tornado. Get knocked out. Dream of Oz. Wake up and decide to never ever leave home ever again.