This is one of those questions that really bothers me. Actually, it’s not the question - it’s the resulting conversation. I was raised on a farm but have spent considerable time since in cities. What I’m about to say is a generalization, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who are going to tell me I’m wrong, but it reflects my personal experiences, not the opinions/feelings of SDMB members.
People in cities see a poor little lost puppy or read about abused animals and go nuts, yet go out of their way to avoid the crazy woman on the street corner begging for money. People in the country won’t take their pet to the vet til it’s near death, but have no problems breaking out the combines to help the nut-job over on the next section bring in the harvest when he lands in the hospital. It’s a matter of perspective: too much of anything breeds contempt, be it people or animals.
Re: worry.
There’s cattle/sheep dogs and then there’s dogs. If a cattle/sheep dog goes after said livestock when told to “sic 'em” and puts them where you want them to go, that’s a good thing. If your neighbor has a spoiled rotten “Fluffy” that sees black-and-whites and thinks “Let’s go for a chase”, Fluffy’s owners better put Fluffy on a chain before Fluffy gets lead poisoning. One of dad’s Holsteins (they’re worth roughly $1000, +/- a couple hundred) broke a leg running from a “Fluffy”.
Also…
Dogs in rural areas are generally not confined in any way. When people show up and the dog starts to go vicious you need either a 12-gauge or another, more understanding owner. Anyone want a dog that likes to bite people?
On the other hand…
Once went to the pound where I found a beautifully pure-bred yellow lab with hours of training. Why was she there? “Gun shy”. There’s one dog owner who should meet up with the wrong end of a gun.
Whoa, this turned into a screed…Am sorry Can you tell it’s a touchy subject for me?
The way I understand it, if I wanted to shoot my old sick decrepit dog, it wouldn’t be a problem.
If I wanted to shoot my neighbors constantly barking dog, then there are some fines involved. ( And beleive me,two summers ago, I wanted to shoot that damn dog and it’s neglectful owner. But in the end the dog was hit by a car.)
As a former animal control officer in Georgia, I can tell you that animal laws vary tremendously from county to county, city to city, etc. However, most jurisdictions have some kind of law prohibiting “cruelty to animals”. How that law is interpreted will depend on the officer who issues a citation (or not), the local prosecutor (and whether he gives a damn about animals or not), and local sentiment. Having said all that, I would think it very rare for a person who kills a dying, suffering animal to be arrested. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, just that in my experience it would be unlikely. A person who kills dogs for fun is a whole different story, although there are still plenty of jurisdictions where such a man might go unremarked.
My daddy lived in a county in South Georgia that had no animal control department and no leash laws. As in the cases mentioned by PUNdit and galen, locals would often go out and hunt down wild animal packs. Anyone who thinks that’s so cruel should have seen some of the ferals that I had to bring in and put down. Domesticated dogs are not equiped to survive in the wild.
Incidentally, most of the dogs that my daddy and his neighbors hunted were there because their owners threw them away. Lots of folks just dump pets out in the “country” and tell themselves that the dog or cat will be happy, but an abandoned pet leads a short life of pain and suffering.
LaMaxwell
Every day our children ask us, “Who am I?” and with everything we say to them and everything we do, we say, “This is who you are.”
Can you tell it’s a touchy subject for me?