Oh, this is an old story

[lizblackdog]

I AM SURROUNDED BY TEH STUPID.

Remember the idiots with the dogpile and the inability to work out what a leash is for?

Well, I just ran into Puppything on the lam while walking my dogs (fortunately I saw it before Spike did). Being the good neighbour I am, I nipped home to put my dogs away and nipped back out with a leash to take Puppything home. I'm not the only good neighbour round here, because I got back out there just in time to see my friend Mo, the owner of Spike's mini-Border Collie girlfriend Ella, had beat me to it and returned Puppything home already.

Ella's owner has lived across the road from The Idiot Family for some time (and has returned their continually-straying dogs more often than I have) and she was even more ranty about their pet-owning habits than I was.

Turns out they're backyard breeders. Why am I not surprised? Apparently, their last dog was kept only long enough to breed and sell a litter of puppies before they gave her away. Puppything appears to be destined for the same fate - I hadn't realised she was even female (I guess Spike never got close enough to check, because he wouldn't have barked at her if he'd known that) but she's in season already. She's less than a year old. I'm taking bets with myself whether they're going to mate her deliberately - but it's probably academic. Their dogs escape three or four times a week anyway. If their Jack Russells haven't already gotten to her it's a dead cert that something will.

It gets better. They used to have rabbits too. The rabbits had babies - as they tend to do if you don't speuter or separate them. (Who'da THUNK it??)

Guess what they did when they couldn't cope with the rabbit explosion? They set the whole lot of them loose.

Yes, I did hear this second-hand, but I did see a loose rabbit two or three times near the hollow oak tree on Woodbury Avenue back when I first moved here. Of course, this is prime suburban fox country round here, so at least the poor creatures probably had a quick death and benefited some other animal - but still...

Comments

[gwenhyffar.livejournal.com]

Next time you see the puppything loose, take the poor thing into the local RSPCA or something, anything is better than her being a broodbitch to be dumped afterwards!

Unless they could see you doing it of course.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I may very well do that, if I can do it without sparking enormous neighbour drama.

I've been wondering if there's anything I can actually DO apart from sitting here fuming and retrieving their dogs when I see them. I don't think there is. They're not - legally - abusing their dogs. They're fed, they're sheltered, they're not being kicked or beaten. I'm not at all sure the law can do anything.

I might phone the dog warden tomorrow and have a talk about it though. There might be something.

[bites-the-sun.livejournal.com]

How many animals do they have at any one time? Do their animals cause a nuisance? If it's a council house they may have some leverage if they are breaking regulations concerning that kind of thing.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

They've got four - three JRTs and Puppything.

I'm not sure how much of a nuisance they are. They're not barking at all hours, but they do escape a LOT, and I'd be willing to bet actual money that at least half the unscooped turds I see round there come from their dogs.

I'm fairly sure it IS a council house, because they've just been ahving their kitchen redone by the same council contractors that did mine.

You know what, though - I'm very very reluctant to drag the council into it, mainly because it would be SO damn easy for someone to do the same to me. It would only need one or two complaints about my dogs to get me evicted. Call me superstitious, but that gives me a strong glass houses/stonethrowing feeling.

[bulletslc.livejournal.com]

I had a freak out rant at my new upstairs neighbors the other night....was walking Odin at the dog walkie part of our complex and they came out with their dog, sans leash, which is not only illegal on a city basis, but also on a condo basis and stupid to boot! She's a young pit bull mix and charged right towards me and Odin. I bared my teeth and snarled at her and she ran right back to her owners (I take no chances since the time a border collie broke his leash and went for Odin). I then let into the owner with much vitriol! I called him several choice names and informed him he needed to get his fucking dog on a fucking leash.....at this point several neighbors came out onto their patios to witness the drama, including the neihbor I'm friends with who is on the condo council board and is just as fed up as I am about irresponsible pet owners. The owner said several things back which was when the council member chimed in with the fact that leashing is a condo rule and she'd call animal control if they didn't start doing it.

After I'd returned Odin to the condo and was driving off to work I passed the dog and owner....I apologized for swearing and explained to him what I do for a living and why leashing dogs is so important to me due to the number of injuries and deaths of dogs I see every night. He apologized back very sincerely....Hopefully he WILL start leashing....but its hard to say how much that sort of thing sticks.....I hope it does, because myself and the council member will have no problem calling animal control if there is another issue.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

excellent that he apologised!

people just don't realise. However well trained the dog is, there's always the risk of unexpected squirrels or a thousand other things that could go wrong.

hell, Spike's recall is good enough that I could probably walk him offleash. I can call him back from strange dogs, I can even call him back from cats if I see them first. However, I am not stupid enough to assume I'd always see them first. And it only takes once.

[bulletslc.livejournal.com]

Yup! And no matter HOW friendly and non-aggressive a person's dog is....how does the OWNER know that the leashed dog their precious pup is racing up to play with is non-aggressive? This is how dog fights happen.

And what if that dog or squirrel is across a busy street? Hmmmmm? The dog isn't going to wait to watch for traffic.


Dogs are naive, humans are stupid.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

that's why he's only offleash in parks and such, where he's allowed to be. I did have a very near miss with Squish once - he dashed across a road to greet another dog and a sixteen-wheel truck missed him by about ten inches. But that was because his collar broke! I swear, it took ten years off my life.

idiot people are lucky. They live in a tiny little twisty cul-de-sac where their dog would have to roam quite far before she reached a dangerous road. I'd never wish death or injury on a dog, but I can't help wondering if they'd be a bit more bloody careful if they lost one or had a near miss or two. probably not, though. That level of stupid tends to be incurable.

[bulletslc.livejournal.com]

No....people that stupid never learn from their mistakes...we have to rely on Darwin's law to rid them from the breeding pool.