All Dogs are ‘House’ Dogs; Some Owners Just Miss the Memo

So, in a surprise twist that—oh, wait—happens all the time, Dogs Deserve Better was once again painted as the bad guys in an Ohio neglect case yesterday.

Here’s the news story:

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/02/03/mount-vernon-ohio-mt.-vernon-dog-owner-threatened-after-online-post-goes-viral.html

Since it appears the news station only called Dogs Deserve Better for a statement AFTER our office staff went home for the day (leaving a message just before 6 p.m.), I’ll be more than happy to create our rebuttal to the above story here in my blog.

1. Was it an animal rescue, or a “violent act of harassment?”

Neither. It was a stand against animal cruelty.

Image of the dog in distress

Dog looking for help under fence

You see, while every one of you at your news station goes home to your WARM, happy, and healthy dogs sleeping on your couches, Joe Schmoe that you’ve just interviewed leaves his dogs outside for life.

Because, in his words, “They AREN’T HOUSE DOGS.”

But they are. HOUSE DOGS. Joe Schmoe is just too uncaring to know it.

Every dog is a house dog. Every dog wants to be a member of the family, and these two pit mixes you’re showing are no exception.

Pitbulls are some of the most chained dogs in America, yet they are short-coated dogs and don’t have the fur to endure the cold; they are among the first to freeze to death at the end of a chain.

2. Police are ‘concerned’ about an ‘out of state’ rescue group’s methods.

What would these heinous METHODS be, you might ask? Putting up photos of a dog in distress on social media and having people call the authorities and the news stations about it?

It’s called FREE SPEECH. Social action. Dog advocacy. Nothing sinister about it, although it sure is being purported as such.

3. Police say the viral response to our Facebook post ‘could have put lives in danger.’

Weren’t lives already in danger? The dogs who are forced to live outside in sub freezing temperatures on nights with wind chills as low as -7 are in danger of death every single day of the winter months. By people taking a stand against this treatment of our best friends, we are acting to SAVE LIVES.

4. Even ‘we’ (the news station) felt the repercussions.

So the news station and the police station get bombarded with phone calls asking for help for the dog? I would call that a success. Thanks to everyone who stood up for the dog and made a difference. We do have a voice, and we can and should continue to use our voices until laws and lawmakers and those tasked with upholding the laws understand that living beings have the right to live free of the danger of death at the end of  chain.

5. People came around his house and made threats and brandished pistols.

[I watch a lot of Judge Judy because my hubby likes her. She would say if someone DID brandish a weapon, wouldn’t that be the first thing you talk about instead of bringing it up at the end as an afterthought? I know I’d be blubbering on and on about that if it were me.]

Dogs Deserve Better asks for phone calls to police and local news on dog cases like this. We NEVER advocate violence. Anyone who becomes violent as a result of something they read online is standing on their own, and not as part of any group.

I can tell you that dog-loving Americans are getting fed up with the animal abuse and neglect. If they are acting out, I would suggest that lawmakers stop dragging their feet and get to making and enforcing better laws for Man’s Best Friend.

IF THIS REALLY HAPPENED, and I have no idea if it did or not, then it probably won’t be the first or last time.

However, neither I nor DDB are responsible for one person’s reaction to the abuse they are seeing. We simply point it out; we don’t advocate or condone violence in reaction to it. We ask for phone calls to flood the police and the media.

6. Blames it on his neighbor.

Our apologies and condolences go out to this neighbor. Do you know how much abuse she had to witness in order to decide to stand and ask for help for the dog? Can you understand for one second the fear she had to face just by going public with what she was seeing?

Can you bet that she might be harassed now that she outed the abuse she saw?  I wrote a blog already about the suffering of the neighbors who have the watch the abuse. It’s horrible, and once again, SHE is the one belittled right along with Dogs Deserve Better. https://ofdogsandchains.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/the-emotional-distress-of-watching-a-dog-chained-in-the-cold/

7. Dog warden found ‘nothing wrong.’

Color me shocked! Not. Dog wardens, animal control officers, police, seldom find ‘anything wrong’ unless the dog’s already dead. At that point they MIGHT start to think something is wrong, but you can bet in most cases there won’t even be charges filed.

News reporter—Shelby is it—do you have two eyes? Do you have a dog? Because anyone who DOES have two eyes can see that there’s definitely something wrong.

8. They are well cared for, but not HOUSE DOGS.

Joe Schmoe states the dogs were well cared for, but NOT house dogs. Then they were NOT well cared for, or they WOULD be house dogs. ‘Outside dogs’ and ‘cared for’ do not go together. Oddly, the news station continually showed photos of the dog inside, but then they admit the dogs live outside and proudly show the doghouses.

Doghouses are not something to be proud of.

In fact, I’d like to issue a CHALLENGE TO THIS GUY, JOE SCHMOE DOG OWNER. I WILL COME THERE AND CHAIN UP TO YOUR DOGHOUSES WITH YOU IN THE DOGS’ PLACE.

WHEN YOU’VE HAD ENOUGH AND CAN ADMIT THAT THIS IS NO LIFE FOR A DOG, WE WILL QUIT.  Deal?

Just give me a call at our office when you’re ready for our challenge. 757-357-9292.

9. She had a skin allergy, which is why she was red and patchy. I have ointment for it.

Did the news station ask to see the vet bill for the medicine? Any vet instructions for the skin allergy? Or, as usual, did they just believe whatever they were told.

I’ve never had a vet prescribe ointment for any of the dogs we’ve rescued with skin allergies. They had special baths, antibiotics, antifungals, and a myriad of other medicines by mouth considering what kind of skin condition the vet thought they had, but I have never been prescribed an ointment.

Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY LICK IT OFF.

So I won’t believe he had ointment for his dog’s skin allergy without seeing a vet bill and prescription for it.

10. He has doghouses with bedding, food and water, and even heat lamps.

Um, wow? Besides the obvious, that NO DOG DESERVES TO LIVE OUTSIDE and instead deserves to have a cushy bed INSIDE the home, I really didn’t see more than a few twigs of straw in the houses, and I didn’t see any food and water either.

And the heat lamp? Appeared to be on a crate INSIDE the home. What’s up with that.

11. Police chief says “because of all the phone calls and e-mails he couldn’t have responded to ‘something serious.'”

Come on! That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. Not only could he have certainly responded to ‘something serious’ but this comment in and of itself is exactly the problem.

Dogs are considered unimportant in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of law enforcement. If they HAD taken the problem seriously, the phone calls would have immediately stopped and the dog would have been safely inside and warm, and perhaps on her way to the vet.

12. Check the facts before posting on social media.

Hmmm. Ok, let’s check the facts. Yep, looks like we had our facts straight. Dog outside? Check. Dog has skin condition and low body fur to survive chained in the winter cold? Check and check.

13. Gave Samantha to a rescue group.

Well, then? I guess all’s well that ends well. I’d call that was a good day for Samantha.

Looks like you’re on your way to a new and better life, girl. Have a great one! Run, play, snuggle, do all those things that normal dogs get to do and you were deprived of. You sure deserve your happy ending.

Samantha on her way to a rescue group

14. Big FAIL for the OHIO POLICE and the TV STATION.

While your dogs sit inside cushy and warm, you condone and defend those who allow their dogs to suffer and die in the winter cold. You send a message that this behavior is acceptable and perpetuate the real crime against all of doghood: that chaining a dog outside for life is status quo when in fact it isn’t and it never will be.

We will not stop doing what is right and standing for the abused. We suggest that you use the two eyes you have to see the neglect right in front of you and do something about it, rather than defending the abuser.

P.S. To Anyone who may or may not have acted out with violence

Seriously. If anyone DID hold a gun on this guy or his family? That’s effed up. Two wrongs don’t make a right and all that.

Pip Pip.

You only give the dog owners who mistreat their pets ammo to paint themselves as the victims. Don’t do it.

Yesterday the real victim—the dog—got to safety and will get to know a loving, inside home and family. That’s what’s important.

Thank you so much to the Underdog Society-Knox County Dog Rescue who stepped up to rescue Samantha. If you’d like help with her vet bills, please fill out the form for our Hero Fund grant at this link, and we’ll be happy to help her on to a new and happier life: http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/hero.html.