OT A Dog's Life

Kreisleriana wrote:
I hate to pass this kind of judgment on anyone, and in addition, I
feel a kind of liberal guilt, since these people are immigrants. I

People in most countries in the world treat their animals in horrible,
horrible ways. I have absolutely no shame in passing judgement on those
practices.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

On 2005-02-18, jmcquown penned:

I thought I posted something about this yesterday but I don't see it. I'd
be tempted to find a "dog napper" if possible. That poor animal is just
going to be miserable and possibly mean, but not a guard dog.


I'm wondering if it would be possible to find some appropriate pamphlets and
put them in their mailbox. I dunno, maybe I'm just a pollyanna, but I'd hope
they could be shown the error of their ways.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2005-02-18, Kreisleriana penned:

Interestingly enough I saw this this morning:
http://www.slate.com/id/2113564/ I'm going to keep it in mind.

I'm not sure what to think of this. On one hand, Fly was clearly being
mistreated, and the authorities weren't about to do anything. On the other
hand, vigilante activities are a slippery slope ... and how are we to readily
distinguish them from the thieves who steal pets for lab work?

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:00:47 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama"
yodeled:

On 2005-02-18, jmcquown penned:

I thought I posted something about this yesterday but I don't see it. I'd
be tempted to find a "dog napper" if possible. That poor animal is just
going to be miserable and possibly mean, but not a guard dog.


I'm wondering if it would be possible to find some appropriate pamphlets and
put them in their mailbox. I dunno, maybe I'm just a pollyanna, but I'd hope
they could be shown the error of their ways.


I don't have the time to go into any big history here, but I just
doubt it. These aren't what I'd call big readers. English is not
their first language, either.







Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:05:39 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama"
yodeled:

On 2005-02-18, Kreisleriana penned:

Interestingly enough I saw this this morning:
http://www.slate.com/id/2113564/ I'm going to keep it in mind.

I'm not sure what to think of this. On one hand, Fly was clearly being
mistreated, and the authorities weren't about to do anything. On the other
hand, vigilante activities are a slippery slope ... and how are we to readily
distinguish them from the thieves who steal pets for lab work?


Personally, I don't believe in most slippery slope arguments-- but
that's just me. My lawyer friend tells me that they don't often stand
up in court, either.

I realize that there is no *legal* distinction, from the point of view
that animals are property, and that the legal aspect here is certainly
a deterrent to me taking any action.

But IMO, thieves who steal pets for labs are ethically closer to the
people who exploit their dog, because their behavior is based on the
presumption that the animal is property and nothing more.


Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

On 2005-02-18, Kreisleriana penned:
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:05:39 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama"
yodeled:

On 2005-02-18, Kreisleriana penned:

Interestingly enough I saw this this morning:
http://www.slate.com/id/2113564/ I'm going to keep it in mind.

I'm not sure what to think of this. On one hand, Fly was clearly being
mistreated, and the authorities weren't about to do anything. On the other
hand, vigilante activities are a slippery slope ... and how are we to
readily distinguish them from the thieves who steal pets for lab work?


Personally, I don't believe in most slippery slope arguments-- but that's
just me. My lawyer friend tells me that they don't often stand up in court,
either.

Hrm, I think I meant this differently. I guess my issue is, who gets to
decide what's abusive? Okay, so someone decided Fly was being neglected and
saves him. That sounds plausible. But when my dog was jumping over or
digging under the fence every day, we had him on a leash for a while as we
were figuring things out. What if someone decided *that* was abuse? (It
didn't work, anyway, as he chewed through the leash.)

In general, I doubt this would happen, but I can imagine situations where
overzealous "rescuers" could cause more harm than good.

I realize that there is no *legal* distinction, from the point of view that
animals are property, and that the legal aspect here is certainly a
deterrent to me taking any action.

Well, it's also hard for a law enforcement official to guess at whether this
particular van surreptitiously moving animals is a rescuer or a lab worker.
It could muddy the waters and make it harder to find the really nasty guys.

But IMO, thieves who steal pets for labs are ethically closer to the people
who exploit their dog, because their behavior is based on the presumption
that the animal is property and nothing more.

Agreed.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Might want to contact a local german shepherd group. They are a
popular dog so it's not unlikely there is one around. My concern,
though, is that they would just go out and find themselves a new dog
and do the same darn thing! PatM

On 19 Feb 2005 14:37:03 -0800, "PatM"
yodeled:

Might want to contact a local german shepherd group. They are a
popular dog so it's not unlikely there is one around. My concern,
though, is that they would just go out and find themselves a new dog
and do the same darn thing! PatM

Yeah, the same thing occured to me, too.



Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

Thats so sad, that dog needs a loving family to return his obvious love of
people,anyway how long do they keep him chained up that can be
considered cruelty, which it is, maybe you could put a report in about that,
I once saw a big dog no particular breed tied up outside a pub, I went to
pet it and realised,it couldn't sit down properly, I think it was athritus
in its back legs.I did my shopping and the poor thing was still there, and
it was a very hot day, so I marched into the puband asked the barmaid if she
knew who the dog belonged to , she wasn't sure she said but she thought he
usually sat
over there with those other men, pointing, I crossed to the table and asked
who the owner of the dog was, they asked why so I told them one of them said
he wasn't there at the moment, but it was none of my buisness. So I said
no?well I'm making it my Buisness and I'll be reporting it, the dog hasn't
even got a blanket to sit on and its been in that hot sun or at least an
hour now
and if I see it out there again or tied up outside *any* pub, I'll keep on
reporting it, and cause a lot of trouble, you can tell that to 'him who
isn't here, looking directly at the man who'd spoken as I was sure it was
him I'm glad to say I never did see the dog there again,I just hope he
didn't find another pub somewhere. Jean.P.




Kreisleriana wrote in message
...


A couple of weeks ago, as I passed a business near my house, I noticed
a splendid big dog tied outside. He was a German shepherd type-dog,
very heavy-boned-- but on closer examination, I saw that he was very
young-- hardly more than a big puppy. He had bright, curious eyes, a
doggy smile, and a big, fluffy, waggy tail.

I went to take a closer look at him, and heard yelling from the open
door. "No! No! Get away!"
I stopped and looked at the men who had come outside. "He bites?" I
said dubiously. This dog stood up, and was now looking expectantly at
me with friendly eyes, and a still-wagging tail. I've certainly made
mistakes about dogs before. But there was no sign of aggression,
fear, or defensiveness with this dog.

"Yes, he bites," they said, and I walked away, perplexed. Something
not right there.

A few days later, I was walking by, and the big waif had obviously
worked his charms on another passerby. A young woman was petting him
on the nose, which he was obviously enjoying. Again there was yelling
from inside the door, and the lady was chased away.

All of a sudden it hit me. That dog certainly is friendly! They
don't *want* him to be friendly.

My heart sank. Of course, the dog is enormous-- he's going to be a
guard dog. These guys didn't get a huge dog just to eat a ton of food
a day and be a pal.

Later the same day, when I came home, the dog was being walked by a
young man. Busybody that I am, I approached them, and told the young
man what a beautiful dog it was. The dog's eyes lit up just as
before, and his big fluffy tail started wagging. The young man, who
didn't speak English well, just said "Don't touch." I said "He
bites?" The boy said "I don't know. He might." This sounded pretty
weaselly to me, and I said, "You don't want him to be nice. You want
him to be mean." The boy said "He's a guard dog."

I went away, my heart sinking more. There's really nothing I can do
about this, unless they *really* mistreat him. But I can't imagine
a very nice life for him. Even if they don't beat him, or tease him,
or starve him, even if they take the modicum of humane care of him,
this lovely dog will not have a happy life. There is nothing that
makes me madder than the idea of taking an animal who so clearly has
an open, friendly, trusting nature, and messing with that, and ruining
it. I can't get him out of my mind.



Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

"I crossed to the table and asked
who the owner of the dog was, they asked why so I told them one of them
said
he wasn't there at the moment, but it was none of my buisness. So I
said
no?well I'm making it my Buisness and I'll be reporting it, the dog
hasn't
even got a blanket to sit on and its been in that hot sun or at least
an
hour"

My Grandmother takes my dog Bonnie shopping with her. Bonnie wears
normal engraved ID tags and a tag that says she is microchipped, as
well as Cardiff City Council "Home again" registration tags. There is
NO WAY she doesn't look like she belongs to someone who cares. Gran
often ties her up outside the store when she shops, and Bonnie plays it
for all she is worth, generally looking lost, abandoned and pathetic,
as she has worked out that this is the quickest way to get the most
pets and scritches.

One day, a call came over the store intercom asking for the owner of
"Bonnie" to report to the customer service desk. Apparently another
customer had become concerned over the fact that Bonnie looked "Lost,
abandoned and pathetic" outside the store. (bearing in mind she has 3
types of ID tags so definitely belonged to someone).

As I pointed out to my Gran, who was upset at being accused of dog
abadonment, better the other customer reported Bonnie to the store so
that the store could address the issue of an possibly abandoned dog,
than just ignore her and leave her to potentially heavens knows what.
Whilst I was a little suprised that the customer reported Bonnie, it at
least showed she cared.

Sometimes, you DO have to interfere.

Just my 0.02c

Helen m