Mon
Mar 26 2007
07:56 am
By: Mark Siegel
Knoxville Voice has this article about animal abuse in Knox County.
Among other things, the article points out that chained dogs are really dangerous, Knox County Animal Control will not investigate anonymous animal abuse complaints (although Knoxville Animal Control will), and the Knoxville-Knox County shelter is one of the only shelters in this region that adopts out pit bulls.
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Tragic accident
Mark, I'll share a tragic accident I witnessed in 4th & Gill some years back, in the hope that someone here might avoid allowing it to happen to their own pet.
Some dog owners down the street from me were unable to keep their pet inside due to their landlord's lease restrictions. Since their back yard wasn't fenced-in, either, they reluctantly kept their dog chained in the back yard while they were at work. They were dutiful pet owners, providing the animal ample food and water, solid housing, and lots of playtime after they returned home in the afternoon.
Sadly, they failed to notice a potential hazard in that their dog's chain was long enough to let him reach their next-door neighbor's chainlink fence, as their neighbor's back lawn *was* fenced-in.
One day while the petowners were at work, their dog burrowed under the neighbor's fence, then tried to jump back over the fence into his own back yard. The petowners returned home from work to find that the poor thing had hanged himself in the process.
If we must chain our dog, then, we need to be cognizant of the latitude he can still roam, and of what potential hazards lie within that range.
Hate to be judgmental, but
Hate to be judgmental, but if you have to chain your dog, you probably shouldn't have a dog. Or if you must have a dog, you should move somewhere more dog friendly.
P.S. and another thing. Dogs
P.S. and another thing. Dogs are pack animals. They need to live inside the den with the pack. Which probably accounts for a lot of the problems with chained dogs mentioned by Mark.
(At a shelter in FL we went to when we first were thinking about getting a dog, they asked a bunch of questions. One was, will you keep it inside or outside. We said we weren't sure yet. They said they would not adopt out a dog that would be kept outside, so if we wanted a dog we'd have to keep it inside, and they would come and verify it.)
on shelter dogs
We were also grilled on the yard/fence/chain issue when we adopted our pup a decade ago. They also required us to sign a statement that if we should ever have to give her away she must be returned to that shelter.
Over the years we got postcards from them. It was a combination of fundraising and questions regarding us and the dog/placement for case study.
Did the dog grow into the dog the shelter described she would be?
No. They said "oh, 50 pounds at best". She is a 110 pound eating, sleeping, poopin' machine.
No. If this dog has Lab in her it must be test lab cause she is horrified of water.
My point is that they followed up over the years like this was a real adoption. Good for them! Animals are a lifetime commitment- the life of the animal.
One thing that deeply bothers me about dog ownership out here is that so many folks think their dogs must be permitted to run. They let their dogs out as they leave for work in the morning. They don't see or apparently care what those dogs do all day while they are gone. Then again these are the same folks who allow their seven year old kids to run ATVs all over these roads without helmets.
Peeved at Young-Williams
I had an incredibly rankling experience with Knox County's Young-Williams Animal Center. For her Girl Scout Gold Award (a 100-hour service project), my fifteen year-old daughter wanted to provide foster care for some of Y-W's rabbits. We had one meeting in-person with the rabbit caregiver there, and I then spoke with her by phone several times.
Our whole family then set to work buying and building and erecting the rabbit housing. We bought and assembled a 6x10 foot dog kennel. We bought tons of wood, including pricey plywood, to build a three-cage wood hutch for six rabbits, then we built the three double-cages ourselves. To prevent their burrowing, we laid 1/4 hardware cloth on the ground within the dog kennel, wiring it to the bottom of the chainlink fence panels, then spread mulch over the hardware cloth. We also trenched and sawed to frame a small grassy area within the kennel with landscape timbers, imagining it would become a much-preferred spot for lounging. Finally, we trenched and sawed to frame the entire outside of the kennel with more landscape timbers, just for asthetics. I required that my daughter absorb half the $600 cost, and she forked over about a year's allowance and babysitting money.
I then had my daughter phone Y-W to set up the date and time we should pick up our charges. She returned to me in tears, announcing that Y-W wanted us to foster the six rabbits inside the house, a condition my daughter knew full well I would not agree to.
Six bounding rabbits in my house?! I enjoy animals very much, but is that not a bit over-the-top? I gave the Y-W staff a tongue-lashing, but since last summer, the rabbitry still sits empty on the back lawn.
County
If you live in the county and have an animal control issue you might as well not even bother calling. The last time I did, I was told to "shoot the dog and leave it by the curb" and that they would pick it up the next day. Um... excuse me?!
The time before that I discovered the anonymous caller issue. In my neck of the woods it is just not good idea for me to essentially rat a redneck out.
On my drive home I witness multiple examples of what I would call cruelty but I will not call again.
MB
My neighbors dogs were
My neighbors dogs were terrorizing the neighborhood. I called and the woman officer who works for the county - she was very nice. She didn't see the dogs running around but told me to keep calling whenever they were out. She finally got here to catch them and took them from the owners and they had to go to court over them, they never got them back. It might depend on who you talk to - or how you talk to them.