I think some nights I leave a bowl of dog food out for all the strays in my neighborhood-but cover it in hot sauce and ghost pepper flakes
Why would you tease the strays like that?
In order to keep them from eating the food.
I get that you are trying to do good here, but you should not put pepper flakes on the food. The spice can really harm the animals that you are feeding.
Why not? I'm trying to keep the dogs away and also get rid of some of them.
You could just not put food out at all then. It is not okay to intentionally harm animals by putting hot things in their food.