This is something like Daisy's twelveth visit to Toronto Animal Services. So far, everytime she's escaped from her owner's house, she's been lucky enough to avoid getting hit by a car before being picked up by an animal control officer and brought in. Each time, Daisy's owners had been given a warning and each time the owners have obviously ignored the warning. It's like they were using TAS as their own dog retrieval/dog sitting service. So, a couple of days ago when the owners called once again to see if Daisy had turned up, they were told yes and this time they'd be charged a fine.
The owners balked and walked away from their dog and now 10 year old Daisy is homeless and scared and her future is uncertain.
Of course the owners blame Daisy for her own predicament. She's got separation anxiety; she bolts through doors; she chews through stuff. So, instead of crating Daisy whenever she's alone, the owners dump her because they're too cheap to pay a fine - which is really just a service fee for returning their dog to them these dozen or more times.
I wish there was a trap door for people like that. The ex-owners are brought into the office. They're asked why they've abandoned their pet. They start to give some sorry excuse for being such assholes but before they can finish, a button is pressed, and whoosh, a trap door opens and they fall into a big, dark pit and land on top of all the other assholes that have abandoned their pets. And for just a few seconds, while the trap door is still open, you can hear all the assholes down there still telling each other how it wasn't their fault, it's just that the dog didn't match the new sofa, or the dog grew too big, or the dog barked sometimes, or the new boyfriend didn't like dogs, or the condo didn't allow dogs or the dog was behaving, well, like a dog and that just wasn't good enough and even though all those assholes have been sitting in the dark with all those other assholes for all this time, they still don't get it. They'll never get it. And then the trap door closes, all is quiet again and the world is a better place.
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5 comments:
Man oh man. How many of these kinds of losers are out there? Fortunately, not very many, it's just that you guys are in the business of dealing with inadequate dog owners so at times it must seem to be the norm.
Hate to see this happen to any dog, but especially an old gal like Daisy. What a sweet face.
How much is the dogsitting fee, by the way?
I don`t think there would be any problem getting donations of lumber or labor to build the trap door.
At least the dog made it to the shelter before being hit by a car.
I hope these people are smart enough(doubt it) to realize that the "perfect" dog doesn`t exist and they should not get another dog/cat or other living creature until they realize that.
Daisy deserves better and I hope a real family is out there for her.
Perhaps it`s a good thing for Daisy that they won`t pay the fine.
They probably also wouldn`t pay a Vet bill when she gets hit by a car.
Don't quote me on this but the fees go something like this: If a dog has a city license, with an up-to-date address, and is picked up by a animal control, it is returned free of charge if the owners are at home to receive the dog. If the dog has to be brought back to TAS and is kenneled (in which case it gets walked, fed, possibly cleaned, health checked, etc.) there is a $40 fee. There is also an daily fee of $20 after the second night.
In this particular case, a fine was levied which I don't think I can go into for privacy reasons, but it wasn't any more than, say,3 or 4 large bags of high quality dog food.
And yes, the losers are the minority, at least in Toronto, and I try to remind myself of that all the time. There may be things to complain about in this city but one thing we can proud of is that our citizens generally take pretty good care of their dogs.
Oh my...what a lovely fantasy. Can I push the button on the trap door?
Poor Daisy...I have a thing for dogs with grey around their mouths. *sigh*
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