Neglect??

I live in a rural county that until the past few years had no animal advocacy groups. It is sad but true that often you have no real recourse except maybe to ask the paper to print a letter to the editor, and keep you anonymous. Obviously, the dog's shelter is inadequate. Perhaps you could PM Mark Kumpf - he has great answers. And a call to your district attorney's office might help, esp. if you get somebody compassionate. I once tried to get help for a bull in a swampy pasture, who had these hideously swollen hooves and couldn't walk; AC was a division of the sheriff's dept. & they said there was nothing in county code against it. fortunately, a new deputy district attorney (who grew up in So.Cal. in a human rights/animal rights activist family) listened to me, and called the sheriff's office as well as the pasture's landlord (Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power), and the rancher came out and picked up the poor beast, after 5 days of him standing in muck, bellowing & moaning, sides sunken in & looking terrible. Shortly after that, a letter to the editor appeared in the paper about the "bleeding hearts" who think that cattle deserve vet care when the ranchers can't even afford to go to the dentist. Ironically, the cattlemen's assoc. asks the State of California to reimburse them for at least $1,200 per animal, if a mountain lion kills it (yet that same poor beast isn't worth a vet call!) So, please, keep trying...that dog barks from loneliness & misery, and also from the hope that somewhere, his pleas are heard. My thoughts are with you! Susan

Hi Sharky ~

Thank you for caring about this dog. I hope you look at all your animal laws (city, county and state) to know for yourself whether anything is relevant. They can be unknown or misinterpreted even by animal workers. Mark K. will likely give you helpful input as well.

Here are several, more recent, wonderful campaigns for some good ideas. A number of other national groups include this issue in their work.

Dogs Deserve Better: No Chained Dogs!
http://www.dogsdeservebetter.com/

Help Chained Dogs | A Common Form of Animal Cruelty
http://www.unchainyourdog.org/

I have the same situation and have spoken with neighbors several times but need to find more ways to help the dogs.

Send me the town or nearest city and I will so some research on the code.