Stray Dogs

I used to live in a house on a secluded corner, between two stop signs where it was convenient for people to drop off animals, especially dogs. I would wake up a lot of mornings and find empty containers that had food in them and a puppy or dog wandering around outside. On occasion, when I wasn't home, I would come home and find a dog tied to my front porch. Sadly enough, there was a highway not far from the house and I'd find a lot of cats or dogs that would get hit by cars and trucks and I would end up burying them, just because someone wanted an animal and then changed their mind, deciding it would be better to drop it off and forget about it. I would always check to make sure and see if the dog had a collar or tags, a lot of the time they didn't have anything at all. I would take pictures, make flyers for 'found dog' and post them around local businesses and put an ad in the newspaper. The newspaper here will let you put an ad in for free if an animal is found. Not a lot of people would come forward and claim their dog. I would try to find homes for the drop offs. I would call the local shelters and the pound to see if anyone was looking for them and if they could take the dogs. Usually there was no one looking for them and there would be a waiting list to get the dogs somewhere safe, where they could be properly taken care of, so I would keep them until there was room for them. I moved a couple years ago,unfortunately the people that moved into my old house have the same problem I did with drop offs and strays. I am still trying to understand why people would do this to an animal, hoping that maybe it would get lucky and someone would take it. Probably not considering that it might get hit by a car or truck, it could get in a fight with a wild animal and have a violent ending. why they would shirk the responsibility off on to someone they don't even know? What always made people think that someone else would or could take care of their unwanted pets ? If you have a dog and he seems a little unruly or untrainable and you're thinking about dropping it off somewhere, consider obedience training, working with your dog just a little bit more or finding a home for him yourself. Keeping a puppy and keeping up with the proper care and training of one is rewarding and well worth the effort!

Dog Hoarders

Last night I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and came across a series called 'Confessions: Animal Hoarding' and I couldn't believe what I was seeing! People that have an excessive amount of animals, especially dogs that they had somehow accumulated. Most started with two or three and end up with more than the average person could possibly handle. The biggest problem I think there is, is not getting their animals spayed or neutered and getting attached to and not re-homing the new puppies. I think it could be really easy to become a pet hoarder but not so easy to take care of a lot of animals all at the same time. Seriously, how much attention can someone give 10, 20 or more pets?! What I seen on this show was a lot of serious abuse and neglect from owners that really didn't realize they were abusing or neglecting and thinking that no one else would or could take care of these animals or love them as much as they did. A lot of the homes where these animals were, weren't even clean enough for an animal to live in and would cause the owners serious medical problems. The other thing that caught my attention was the massive amounts of money people would spend on dog food and toys but no veterinarian care. Putting the dogs first and making sure they had enough dog food to feed these large broods before they would buy food for themselves or for their own family to eat. That makes no sense to me at all. If a human doesn't take care of their own needs and health first, how can they take care of any animal? If pet hoarding is a priority over their own health, there is always the possibility that these people might end up not being able to take care of their 'pets' and ending up having to be hospitalized, or some maybe even dying, with no one knowing these pets exist and a massive amount of animals dying of starvation or disease.