The lead story is that someone took a dog with tags and contact info, didn’t call the owners took it to a shelter instead, then the shelter didn’t call the owner either. Finally, the owner calls the police and finds out what happened.
Either there’s a huge lack of common sense at many places here or this story is leaving some details out.
There are literally people in my apartment complex in California insisting we feed and provide water for the stray cats, squirrels, and raccoons (yes even the raccoons) because they "can't live on their own" and then are concerned when any of those turn up dead because local coyotes know where the food is.
> a new neighbor had spotted Faith just outside a fence on Wissner’s property
Wording could be taken either way, and I could be wrong, but it almost sounds like the dog was not on the property of its owner, and was over the fence in the neighbours property?
We have a huge problem with pet cats that stray from their properties and eat birds/fish/etc in neighbouring properties... if one turns up on my property, I trap it and send it to the shelter specifically so the owner gets fined, even though I know who owns it. It's what our local council/government recommend we do considering the owners already know it's illegal for pet cats to be off their property here (or even outside of their house after dark, which is almost always when we trap them in our yard).
There's a big fluffy white dog in my neighbhorhood who has a talent for jumping the fence. I've returned him 3 times. This is not hard... once you determine he's friendly and just on an adventure the phone number is on his tag.
It's possible people don't like sheep ranchers. Or maybe its just that one rancher. We have the goat herders in our area that fence off parts of the undeveloped land during the summer because it's a fire hazard. Those guardian dogs never leave the fenced area, and they will let you know when you are too close very quickly.
Our largest dog is extremely active. He is a great bird and rabbit dog and he runs and runs and runs when we're not hunting. He'll follow the tractor for miles back and forth in the field. He's skinny but, according to the vet, exactly where he should be in weight.
Our neighbor's mom called the animal warden on us for not feeding him. He eats better than I do.
Her dog is a morbidly obese miniature collie.
Most people's perspective of ideal animal shapes is incorrect.
I know nothing about such dogs or farms, but why would he allow the dog to go beyond the property fence, even though it was still his property? Why include that on the limits of the property that takes 1 to 2 years to teach?
Farming properties are large, grazing paddocks are much smaller and many - some are even "virtual" - defined by GPS shock collars on stock.
Dogs are smart and learn outer boundaries and roam looking for predators, stock are kept bounded and once an area is cropped (to some degree) they are moved to another grazing area.
Taken to the other extreme, you have feral dogs. We don't think of them much in urban areas, or even most rural areas, since we will rarely encounter anything more wild than a stray. Being stalked by a pack of feral dogs is not pleasant.
We tried to adopt a cat once from a local shelter. If there was any indication that you would let the cat outside, for any period of time, they would reject the application. Also, if there was any indication you would ever leave the cat alone for 10 hours or more, they would reject the application. So, we left all those cats in the shelter, where there were almost certainly terminated, and bought a kitten from some random people on craigslist.
After that cat passed, we tried to adopt a dog from the local shelters. All required an interview and house visit, with random unscheduled visits within the 6 months after. We bought a puppy from some random kid.
edit: "any indication that you would let the cat outside" and "outdoor cat" are not the same thing. I failed because I said we had a patio we would let the cat sit on, in nice weather, on the second floor, or because we were going to see if we could leash train it (my friend had with his cat). I don't know, the lady seemed very angry the whole interview. The leash training failed before it made its way outdoors, but the sun was enjoyed.
When I was a kid we adopted two kittens from a local cat rescue. They made us sign a document saying we would never allow the cats outside. One got out when she was a few months old, and she developed an obsession with the outdoors and would spend hours each day scratching at the door and licking her fur off, and occasionally she would escape and us kids would chase her around the yard until we could get her back in. We did the exact same indoor cat enrichment activities with her and her sister, who never developed a desire to get out.
Eventually we took the one with the outdoors obsession to the vet who told us we could either put her on Prozac or start letting her out. At that point we started letting her out (in our quiet suburb nowhere near a major road), and she instantly became an extremely happy cat. Her sister lived as a happy indoor cat, while she would go out during the day and come in at night. She came back every night and they both lived to pass of kidney disease when they were 15.
I know a lot of people are extremely against cats going outside, but compared to some of my college friends who kept "emotional support" cats in minuscule dorm rooms, I would much rather let a cat out than imprison it. I don't really buy the songbird thing in built up suburbia.
You're allowed to lie on your application to the shelter. But you should also not let your cat outside because cats are bird murder machines.
A house visit to adopt a dog seems excessive. But this might be organizational scar tissue: mentally ill people adopting and hoarding animals, for example.
Depending on the jurisdiction, any adoption contract that says you have to allow unscheduled visits 6 months after may not be enforceable. Treat your adopted pet well and tell anyone who interferes to f off.
In a lot of ways typical farm cats are more natural than dogs. The distance between those cats and the undomesticated variety isn’t that wide.
Most domesticated cats demonstrably have no issues thriving while feral. They are not well-adapted to every environment they’ve been introduced but they do pretty well in many. Their main issue in places like North America is prodigious predation in the wild.
Cats are non-trivial to contain in the owner's yard, and will attack other animals. Sometimes that is the intention (e.g. barn cats), other times is unwelcome attacks on wildlife (e.g. birds). My family also had to deal with vet bills due to a cat that attacked our dog. While I wouldn't consider letting a cat outdoors abusive, it is certainly disrespectful to neighbours.
The other thing about shelters is they often deal with animals from abusive or neglectful homes. Random visits are likely excessive, but they are just trying to prevent the animal from enduring the same situation with new owners (and likely trying to ensure the new owners can handle an animal that has a history of being abused).
In some parts of the US outdoor cats are an essential bulwark against rodent invasion. It is healthy for the cats and very effective organic rodent control. They do get some birds but the bulk of their activity is rodents. There are places you can’t live without them.
Depending on the situation, outdoor cats can also live a long time. We had farm cats when I was growing up that spent a large part of their time outdoors during the day. They were smart, social, and typically lived 15-20 years before old age caught up with them.
Predation mostly impacts cats that are either obviously stupid or aggressively anti-social in my experience.
The shelter is doing its job: outdoor cats live a shorter life due to fights, cars, disease, predation, etc. And not only that, but they also decimate the local songbird population, which is already in great decline.
If songbirds are your concern, you'd do worlds more for them by getting your neighbors to replace their lawns with shrubbery than by fretting over a couple spoiled cats too stuffed with tinned food to catch anything.
Either there’s a huge lack of common sense at many places here or this story is leaving some details out.
Wording could be taken either way, and I could be wrong, but it almost sounds like the dog was not on the property of its owner, and was over the fence in the neighbours property?
We have a huge problem with pet cats that stray from their properties and eat birds/fish/etc in neighbouring properties... if one turns up on my property, I trap it and send it to the shelter specifically so the owner gets fined, even though I know who owns it. It's what our local council/government recommend we do considering the owners already know it's illegal for pet cats to be off their property here (or even outside of their house after dark, which is almost always when we trap them in our yard).
There's a big fluffy white dog in my neighbhorhood who has a talent for jumping the fence. I've returned him 3 times. This is not hard... once you determine he's friendly and just on an adventure the phone number is on his tag.
He's a good boy.
Doesn't help that pet dogs spend much of their time laying down, with perhaps a couple brief respites in the form of a gentle walk.
They gain weight.
A healthy dog can often look malnourished to pet owners.
Our neighbor's mom called the animal warden on us for not feeding him. He eats better than I do.
Her dog is a morbidly obese miniature collie.
Most people's perspective of ideal animal shapes is incorrect.
Dogs are smart and learn outer boundaries and roam looking for predators, stock are kept bounded and once an area is cropped (to some degree) they are moved to another grazing area.
After that cat passed, we tried to adopt a dog from the local shelters. All required an interview and house visit, with random unscheduled visits within the 6 months after. We bought a puppy from some random kid.
edit: "any indication that you would let the cat outside" and "outdoor cat" are not the same thing. I failed because I said we had a patio we would let the cat sit on, in nice weather, on the second floor, or because we were going to see if we could leash train it (my friend had with his cat). I don't know, the lady seemed very angry the whole interview. The leash training failed before it made its way outdoors, but the sun was enjoyed.
Eventually we took the one with the outdoors obsession to the vet who told us we could either put her on Prozac or start letting her out. At that point we started letting her out (in our quiet suburb nowhere near a major road), and she instantly became an extremely happy cat. Her sister lived as a happy indoor cat, while she would go out during the day and come in at night. She came back every night and they both lived to pass of kidney disease when they were 15.
I know a lot of people are extremely against cats going outside, but compared to some of my college friends who kept "emotional support" cats in minuscule dorm rooms, I would much rather let a cat out than imprison it. I don't really buy the songbird thing in built up suburbia.
A house visit to adopt a dog seems excessive. But this might be organizational scar tissue: mentally ill people adopting and hoarding animals, for example.
Depending on the jurisdiction, any adoption contract that says you have to allow unscheduled visits 6 months after may not be enforceable. Treat your adopted pet well and tell anyone who interferes to f off.
- Cats are natural, suburb density is probably not. Homestead cats have a place as long as we stock food.
- Anything involving money to support AN org should have stringent red tape.
- telling people to fuck off is okay
Most domesticated cats demonstrably have no issues thriving while feral. They are not well-adapted to every environment they’ve been introduced but they do pretty well in many. Their main issue in places like North America is prodigious predation in the wild.
The other thing about shelters is they often deal with animals from abusive or neglectful homes. Random visits are likely excessive, but they are just trying to prevent the animal from enduring the same situation with new owners (and likely trying to ensure the new owners can handle an animal that has a history of being abused).
In some parts of the US outdoor cats are an essential bulwark against rodent invasion. It is healthy for the cats and very effective organic rodent control. They do get some birds but the bulk of their activity is rodents. There are places you can’t live without them.
Depending on the situation, outdoor cats can also live a long time. We had farm cats when I was growing up that spent a large part of their time outdoors during the day. They were smart, social, and typically lived 15-20 years before old age caught up with them.
Predation mostly impacts cats that are either obviously stupid or aggressively anti-social in my experience.
> The sheep were still grazing on the other side of the fence, but their guardian had vanished.
> ...
> According to Wissner, his dog was wearing a collar with a rabies tag and a halter bearing a plate with his name, address and contact information.
The caption for the photo:
> Shepherdess Brittany Cole Bush with a herd of goats on the Arambel Ranch in western Wyoming. (Brittany Cole Bush)
> According to Wissner, his dog was wearing a collar with a rabies tag and a halter bearing a plate with his name, address and contact information.