Seriously? You think dogs are better off roaming around loose than being kept in their yard or inside? If they get killed, oh well, at lest they were free?
Plus, the point was that you really mischaracterized her post in a rather unkind way.
It might be a good idea to see if there is a neighbor who is not scared of dogs. I’ve caught a couple of escapees in my neighborhood. It helps to be able to read a dog; that way you can tell if the dog is friendly or not. I bet I could snag this one in about five minutes. Before I had one I was scared stiff of some behaviors which I now know are totally friendly. You also learn how to give the dog commands - even untrained dogs listen if you are emphatic enough.
I don’t blame the deliverymen. When I delivered mail one summer I was attacked by dogs whose territory I was invading. (I bet I could do better now.) But I bet the dog was just sitting there, maybe expecting some love.
Another possibility is to take a picture and make some signs.
BTW, if it is an escapee I’d be mad at the owners for not noticing. Our animal control is closed weekends, due to lack of funding, so if you find a loose dog on the weekend you get to keep it until Monday. Unless her animal control is very over staffed or very bored, they may not be so eager to come out the fifth time, especially when the dog doesn’t seem to be a threat. I’d go with find the owner.
There are some non-intuitive things about dogs. If you want the dog to follow you, turn your back and walk away. Usually if you walk to the dog the dog will run away further. It took me a while to learn this, but it works.
Without special training dogs don’t know about cars. After thousands of years of breeding I suspect most dogs would rather be home, fed, and with their pack.
The dog has been roaming about for a while now, and has not yet been hit, so perhaps it will be fine. Dogs do usually want to be around people, which is probably why this one has sought one out. Maybe no one is home at its own house or it has chosen to go exploring. A dog really would not choose to sit alone in a house for 8 or more hours, but we humans typically have other responsibilities. If this dog appears clean and fed, it is most certainly happier wandering around than it would be fenced, tied up, or trapped inside.
My neighbors’ dogs visit from time to time. I enjoy their company and we are all happy with the situation. If I wasn’t, I’d shoo them away and they could visit someone who wanted to see them.
No, I know she doesn’t… but have you heard of the “degrees of separation” concept?
Ask the next door neighbor… maybe they know, or know another neighbor who walks their dog regularly and knows all the neighborhood dogs. I really bet it won’t take too long to track down the owner.
I’m not at all trying to excuse the owner’s behavior of letting the dog roam, but he may not know the extent that he is. He may have talked to the immediate neighbors who said it was no big deal in fact they love having their evening visits from “Old Yeller.”
And yes, I understand she doesn’t want to approach the dog to check tags. If she brings the issue up to neighbors likely one won’t have a problem with it. If it really is interfering with deliveries others will probably want to help out.
It wasn’t.
The dope never ceases to amuse me.
I don’t know about animal control in other places but I know that here our officers work hard to find the owners and our animal shelter makes it a rule to find homes rather than destroy the animal.
Anyone who is worried about calling the officers may want to check upon city policies first.
For my dog, no, because I selfishly keep him as my prisoner. He is small and not sensible, plus I don’t live in a rural area and someone would instantly snatch him up.
But a dog in a more rural area? Yes, the road is a threat, and animal control is a threat, and maybe other animals, getting lost, etc., but most of these are problems for the human that loves the dog. The dog is not cognizant of these threats, it’s just living its life. It has no idea about property boundaries, and just spends the day exploring and doing as it pleases. Hell yeah, it’s better off than 90% of dogs out there.
Those who’d trade freedom for safety deserve neither, as they say.
No doubt the dog enjoys roaming the neighborhood. That doesn’t change the fact the the dog’s owner has a responsibility to follow the city or county laws regarding animals. Those laws are put in place to protect the health and safety of people and property. The animal’s feelings are irrelevant, except in situations of cruelty.
It’s the OWNER’s responsibility to take care of his dog. DO NOT SHIFT THE RESPONSIBILITY ONTO OTHERS. I say the owner should train the dog. I say inform the owner and call animal control. You say train the bystander. Total BS.
I was addressing the statement with regard to whether the DOG was better off.
Whether the dog owner should or shouldn’t follow whatever laws apply to his jurisdiction and whether those laws are appropriate is another matter entirely.
If the dog is bothering ONE person and the person can make the dog go elsewhere of its own accord, the argument is made that the dog needs to be incarcerated for its OWN good. Which it isn’t. Bringing it back round to the good of people is a different argument.
Where I live, many cats roam freely, though they have homes. I don’t think it’s strictly legal, but if anyone decided it bothered them and they needed to take action, they’d be in the minority and imposing unnecessary suffering upon the rest of us, cats included.
What next, trap all the raccoons in the woods and cart them away or kill them? I’ve an awful feeling that will actually seem reasonable to some.
Incarcerating a dog IS for its own good. Better for the dog to be taken for walks on a leash or have a large fenced yard to explore than to roam free and be attacked by another animal or a human with a gun or hit by a car. The dog doesn’t have the capacity to choose, so the owner must. It is better to have a live dog with boundaries than a dead one that can’t enjoy freedom of any kind.
As for loose cats, if they are not spayed or neutered, they can breed and add to the feral population. I would say rounding up loose cats and adopting them and fixing them would actually eliminate a lot of suffering for the cats and the humans. I could make the same argument for rounding up loose dogs.
Raccoons are native wild animals and are in no way similar to loose domestic animals which are people’s responsibility. I can’t even admire the quality or your strawman as it is not very well-constructed.
It seems as if you have no concept of the greater good as long as you aren’t personally inconvenienced.
Carry a gun a shoot the fucker. My uncle did that with a neighbor’s dog who they would let run around their property. No charges were filed and no laws were broken. If you are in fear for your life, shoot the damn thing.
Well, I disagree. I’d rather take my chances in the world than be held prisoner for my own safety. I guess you think the zoo animals are best off caged up too.
Who are the suffering humans and cats in my neighborhood? These are pets, spayed and neutered, living in houses, but free to go outside. We are all happy with the situation, at least everyone I know on the street. We enjoy the cats living their happy cat lives.
The raccoons get in trash and I even had one enter my screened porch. I ushered it back outside, but some people feel the need to trap and have them disposed of. It’s not a straw man - it’s reality.
A large dog roaming across a busy road in the dark is a danger to the people in cars, not just to itself. It could easily kill someone. Be serious. Letting a big dog roam at large is highly irresponsible and the owners need to take responsibility – and if that means getting fined, so be it.
OP, call animal control. And report back!
Now you’re just being deliberately dense. I said she shouldn’t call animal control at this point without making any effort to contact the owner. I’ve also said multiple times that she should feel free to call animal control if she feels physically threatened.
I,for one, would like for the zoo animals to be allowed to roam the community. It’d take care of our stray dog problem.
Yes, I know exactly what you meant, I just figured you were smart enough that I didn’t have to type your exact words back to you in my response. So we’re clear, calling animal control at this point, without making an effort to contact the owners isn’t a dick move. That ludicrous. The dog has been out so frequently that it’s probably too much to hope that they’d give a flip if she did eventually find them. You’re the one being deliberately dense here if you’re going to make everyone who responds to you retype everything you’ve already said before you’re capable of understanding anything.
Ordinarily, this is a rather easy problem to solve. You walk up to the dog, read his tag, and call the owners. I’ve done it numerous times. However, that seems to be way outside the OP’s comfort zone and I’m not sure that she needs to jump through a bunch of hoops to solve a problem that someone else created. If animal control does show up and the dog has on a collar, they’ll just return it to its home and the owner gets a very reasonable warning. That isn’t a dick move on this or any other planet.
Seriously - why is it so hard to just knock on a door or two? Suggesting that someone run to animal control before making a good faith effort to contact the owner is pathetic. God forbid someone has to interact with a stranger.
That would be a “neighbor stranger” which I didn’t know even existed before the Dope… but then again I’m from the Mid-West.