We have a less then adequate humane society that won't accept help unless those people put them up on a pedastool and give them nothing but praise.
The last time I checked, this city has exactly one "animal control officer" who in reality is a simple dog catcher. That person's job description includes nothing about animal welfare, animal rights (which are all but non-existent in this state's law), or even protecting the public. The police, who know nothing about dogs (I'm not even talking about behavior advanced or otherwise, I mean they don't know anything about dogs period, let alone if a person is feeding them a giant plate of phooey with a side of lies) take care of "protecting the public". Which apparently to them means ignoring a problem owner until someone gets mauled and then shooting the dog (you'll know where that mini-rant comes from if you've been following the news).
So really, who is protecting the animals in this state? I see or hear about terrible abuse at the hands of not only owners, but even animal care "professionals" ALL the time here. It's so very disheartening. North Dakota is way behind when it comes to updating the laws, and even further behind in enforcing the ones we have.
What spurred this random rant? Other then my own passionate nature for animals of course. Well see there's this dog that lives just a block away from me. Since I've been walking Balfour I've sought out certain houses and yards that I regularly pass by. Ones in which there are typically dogs outside. I don't care if they are reactive or not, it helps either way to have a dog in a controlled situation that Balfour has never met face to face for an extended period of time. I avoid houses with angry owners or those that seem appalled by me repeatedly walking passed. :P Anyways, this particular dog I've grown fond of through Balfour. It's pretty reactive (remember reactive does not mean aggressive) and barks at us every single day. At first Balfour would lunge and bark back but over time the two have grown more used to each other. Well that's an understatement for Balfour. Balfour now adores the dog and begs in his best whiny voice to go greet it through the fence. I've decided to give in if he walks nicely passed one of these times. The chow has gotten fairly used to us and only gives us a bouncing bark or three as we pass by, I think it could be a real sweetheart. However, the more I look at it the I make disturbing finds. It's coat is in total disrepair. I don't mean just messy, I don't even mean just matted. I mean it's so clumped and matted it's like one of those dogs from "Animal Cops" (on animal planet) where they're forced to shave it and find lacerations all over its skin from the weight of the dead fur. Okay, so I don't know what its skin looks like, in part because there's no hope of seeing it through that mess of a coat. There are literally giant (by giant I mean bigger than two large men's fists put together)clumps of mud and fur just trying to fall off the poor dog but getting tangled by the rest of it. That can't be comfortable. The other day though something else worried me. Suddenly its left eye was covered in dark red. I couldn't see the eye at all through the fur and at first feared that its entire eye had been gouged out there was so much blood. A couple days later and there's less blood, enough that I can tell the eye is alright. But clearly whatever cause the bleeding had not so much has been touched. No cleaning of the wound, it didn't even look like the fur was parted to be sure it wasn't deep. Did I mention they keep it outside all day long (I can't speak to all night but I've been by pretty late and guessing how nice and pretty and seasonally decorated their front yard is, and how dirty the dog is, well you do the math)? Yeah, it has a tiny plastic dog house. Real caring person there. I feel so bad for that dog, I want to take it home and groom it. But we have no animal control, the humane society is powerless (like they'd care enough in the first place), and our police are too busy.
too busy to seek justice to those who recently taped a kitten to a busy road to be killed
too busy to talk to an owner of a super aggressive dog held back from a neighborhood by a small cord, two blocks away from a playground
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| Taken two days after I first noticed the eye. Less blood here, but of course I didn't notice the grass in the way until I looked at the picture on the computer. I'll take another sometime. |
Update: Upon further inspection of my pictures, it looks like the dog just had a massive eye infection, not actual blood, just pus and discharge. Not that that's a big step up...
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