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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 12, 2008 13:56:03 GMT -5
BACKYARD DOGS Author Unknown You see one in every community: a dog tied day afte day to a back porch or back fence. Lying lonely on a bare cement pad or packed dirt. The water bowl, if there is one, is usually empty or just out of reach. Abandoned, and chained up, backyard dogs cannot move to comfort. Shelter or companionship. In winter, they shiver; in summer, they languish... year-round they suffer. Dogs are pack animals. Thousands of years ago people and dogs lived in small groups or packs with a cave or den for shelter. Today domesticated companion dogs no longer have other packs of dogs to live with, so they need companionship or "surrogate packs". Dogs are "den" animals so they can be housetrained easily. They need shelter in a safe, secure den - your house - while still being able to go out to relieve themselves. Forcing a dog to live outside alone goes against its two most basic instincts - the need for a pack and a den. If you doubt this, envision all the whining, barking, clawing dogs you have seen tied outside alone, trying to get the attention of their human families. In time, they will give up and become listless or hyperactive, perhaps even fearful or vicious. Peope who keep their dogs constantly tied outside can rationalize they are spending time with them, yet it is rarely significant or quality time - particularly in very hot or inclement weather. Under the best of circumstances, the backyard dog gets a bowl of food and water, a quick pat on the head, and a few minutes contact with another living being; only to return to solitary confinment when the "owner" leaves. DOgs can offer people the gift of steadfast devotion, abiding love and joyful companionship. THose people who cannot accept and return these gifts in kind would be advised not to get a dog. Lest it should suffer the life of a sad, lonely, bewildered backyard dog.
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Post by rexandbaby on Feb 12, 2008 18:06:48 GMT -5
I wouldn't know where to put my two dogs, if they had to stay outside.
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Post by reesakita on Apr 24, 2008 12:05:58 GMT -5
That is something that infuriates me to no end!...Why do you want to own a dog if all your going to do is leave it in the backyard tied up all it's life?....Here in Missouri and in Illinois as well it's against the law to have your dog tied up more then 2 hours at a time...My dogs are my family and they are treated as such as it should be.
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Post by charmingnancy on Apr 24, 2008 15:16:43 GMT -5
I watch Animal Planet almost every evening, and they usually show the Animal Cops shows, and every single episode there is usually at least one dog that they have to rescue out of someone's back yard. These dogs are usually emaciated, and have heart worms or mange. Sometimes they are able to get justice for these dogs with the previous owners and get the dogs adopted to better homes, but sometimes the story doesn't turn out good. The other day, they had an episode from Houston, and they found a severely underweight female German Shepard, and just by looking at her, the ASPCA cop could tell the dog had heart worms, and she did. It was so bad, the had to put the poor thing asleep. But what was worse, was that the owners knew that the dog was in terrible shape, but didn't do anything about it. When the cop demanded they take her to a vet within the next 2 hours, they admitted they couldn't afford to do it, and the only choice the cop gave them was to surrendered the dog over or face animal cruelty charges (which in most states is a max of 1 year in jail and a $1,000 fine per animal). A lot of these "backyard dogs" turn out to be Pit Bulls and Rottwielers, because most people think that they are too aggressive to be a house pet, but they just don't know how to train those types of dogs so they leave them outside to fend for themselves. There was a pit in someone's yard on one of those shows that had a metal chain around his neck for a collar and leash, tied up to the fence. This poor dog had the chain embedded into his flesh at the front of his neck and it became very infected. They tried to fight the infection but had to put the dog down. They couldn't find the owners of the house or the dog, because the house was inhabited with "squatters" who left their dog behind.
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Post by DogGoneGood on Apr 24, 2008 23:20:46 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I seen the "squaters" episode. I use to watch Animal Cops all the time but we don't have AP anymore I think the worst episode I saw was with these puppies that were INFESTED with fleas. When they were washing them the fleas were crawling all over the puppies faces, it was awful! And these were LITTLE puppies!
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