American Dog’s Life Spared - But Is This A Fate Worse Than Death?

A seven year old German Shepherd who attacked a child has been spared from death by a judge in New Jersey, who opted to sentence the dog to life imprisonment instead. Ozzy, the dog in question, who was due to be put down, will now live out the rest of his life in solitary confinement.

After accepting the appeal of Kelly Allard Ozzy’s owner , the municipal judge agreed that Allard’s proposal for Ozzy to patrol a perimeter fence at a local prison was “the right alternative.

“The owner protested the original decision to have the dog put down and proposed that the dog could be of use at the George W Hill correctional facility.

Superior Court Judge John T McNeill III agreed, stating that “He (Ozzy) will be here until he dies, he won’t be adopted by another family, he won’t be released to the public.”The decision is likely to draw criticism from animal welfare groups. The dog had been in an animal shelter since April and now will spend the rest of his life with minimal contact with anyone else, patrolling the prison fence by himself, until he dies. Is this a case of anthropomorphism gone too far? Perhaps the judge and the owner thought that sparing his life may be a relief to Ozzy, but is it fair to subject a dog, an innately social animal to a life of solitude?

The conscience of the owner and the judge should be somewhat lighter after sparing Ozzy the death that was set out for him, but is this really a case of an owner satisfying his own guilty conscience when it was their own negligence that resulted in Ozzy being able to attack a young child?

What do you think?

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I am K9 Magazine's managing editor and am always interested to hear from anyone with an interesting story to tell. - See this author's webpage

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