Some Dog Owners Really, Really Suck - What Can We Do About it?

Don’t be fooled folks, this isn’t just an isolated case from the other side of the world. This sort of thing happens regularly in the UK too. Ask anyone who works in animal rescue, ask dog wardens - sadly there are some people who do not deserve the privilege of canine companionship:

In Spokane Valley, one dog owner, Ruth Stallings, wasn’t pleased to hear her lost dog was found. In fact, when Bosque Animal Rescue Kennels identified the dog that park rangers found and turned in as belonging to her after scanning for a microchip, she told them that she didn’t want the dog back, just send it to the pound.

“They tracked the owner down to Spokane,” said Dr. Bill Trotter, a physician who volunteers with the shelter, Bosque Animal Rescue Kennels, in Clifton, Texas. “And they called her, and she said she didn’t want to have anything to do with the dog. ‘Send him to the pound,’ is what she said.”

Bruno, a shepherd mix, supposedly ran away when Stallings was camping at Lake Whitney, Texas. She said she looked for him but had to leave.

“It irritated the hell out of me — I wanted to make sure the people in Spokane knew about this,” Trotter said. “Here we run this little kennel, and it’s full all the time. Then this woman doesn’t want her dog back.”

The shelter Trotter refers to is set up for 15 dogs and there are currently 50 living there. And this uncaring woman thoughtlessly added to the problem.

Stallings confirmed last week that she doesn’t want Bruno back. “He ran away from us five times, and we figured he didn’t want to be with us. First chance he got, he’d take off.”

“When we adopted him, we overlooked some things,” said Stallings, who’s had other dogs. “He was chewing up clothing and stuff, and we thought it was the puppy stage. But it never got any better.”

“People abandon dogs here a lot,” said Evan Moore, editor and publisher of the weekly Bosque County News. “We are a rural area, and we are close to Dallas-Fort Worth. People drive down here and dump their dogs off.”

SOURCE

Whilst we universally accept that abuse and neglect of dogs is rightly an offence which can be prosecuted, abandonment is not. In fact 100,000 abandoned dogs in UK rescue shelters tells its own story. Sadly there are some people who simply don’t have the moral fibre to ever be suitable, responsible dog owners. It’s my view that we have a problem that needs to be addressed. Whilst anyone is allowed to get any dog and abandon it as and when it suits them, we can expect to see our shelters at breaking point forever more. This is not a trend that will simply ‘right itself’. Dogs being indiscriminately bred, irresponsibly supplied and abandoned at the drop of a hat is all perfectly legal and is a trend that will continue to rise if left unchecked.

Dog Ownership Suitability Test

Author Details
Ryan O'Meara is editor-in-chief of K9 Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for dog lovers. He lives in the East Midlands with his own two dogs, Mia and Chloe. - See this author's webpage

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