Health and Safety
The Backyard Dog
You see them everywhere in our community, dogs tied day after day to a back porch or fence, lying lonely on a patch of bare earth or concrete. The water bowl, if there is one, is usually empty or dirty or just out of reach. Abandoned, but chained up, backyard dogs cannot move to comfort, shelter, or companionship. In winter they shiver, in summer they fry; year-round, they languish and suffer.
So often dogs are forced to live outside, alone and away from their human pack, but to force this kind of life on a dog is one of the cruelest things you can do. Being alone is a terrible punishment for a dog going against its most basic instinct. All those whining, barking, clawing dogs you see and hear tied alone outside are trying desperately to get the attention of their human families.
People who keep their dogs tied or penned outside might say they do spend time with them, but often that means a few moments of contact when they fill the food and water bowls, a quick pat on the head and maybe, at best, a few minutes of contact with another living being each day.
Dogs offer the gifts of steadfast devotion, abiding love and joyful companionship. Unless someone will take the time to accept these gifts and return them in kind, it would be best for them not to get a dog. A sad lonely, bewildered dog left alone out back only suffers, and what sort of person wants to maintain suffering?
Courtesy of the American Humane Association
Created: March 25, 2004 by News Administrator
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