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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

A dog's life

I haven't visited our Daily Rants for a while, and yesterday's raised a good point:

Why do people buy dogs, only to leave them outside all the time and rarely, if ever, interact with them?

I've seen several dogs get that level of inattention in my neighborhood over the years. Even when it's not criminal -- weather too cold or too hot, chain too short, etc. -- it tells us everything we need to know about the people involved.

Posted in: Our town

Comments

Bob G.
Wed, 03/14/2007 - 6:08am

And sadly, many of these same people deem themselves fit to procreate....now THAT really IS a crime!

B.G.

Kenn Gividen
Wed, 03/14/2007 - 10:08am

security, I suppose

Steve Towsley
Wed, 03/14/2007 - 6:48pm

People often assume that a dog is happy tied to a doghouse by a 6-foot chain. Any professional in the veterinary business will tell you that despite the common assumptions about outdoor dogs chained up near doghouses -- it's a lousy quality of life for any dog.

We really need a comprehensive campaign to update the public's understanding of what is humane and inhumane. There is a glut of ignorance out there, and regardless of how people got that way, it badly needs fixing.

I'm no "Bambiist," but it's still true that dogs are miserable when caged all of every workday, or tied to a short tether for extended periods of time. In fact, a dog will likely develop kidney infections if forced to stay in a cage without relieving itself for more than 5 or 6 hours. Most people who work are away from home 8-9 hours a day.

Imagine being on a 6-foot chain and ignored by your friends in a house across the lawn who may have grown tired of you. Imagine being locked in a kennel only two or three times the size of your body -- from Monday through Friday -- for the length of an 8-hour work day plus lunch plus travel time both ways.

You don't have to imagine very hard to figure out that that kind of isolation, especially for a pack animal by nature, is abuse. Better not to have the pet at all. Pets may be property, but laws against cruelty and neglect still apply -- thank God.

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