CANADA -- Q#1: The owner of a brown chow-chow in our neighbourhood recently stood by and watched while his dog mauled a cat. The cat suffered terribly, crawling away and dying before animal rescue officials could arrive. The dog owner walked away and denies involvement or responsibility, even though others witnessed the attack. What should I do?
Q#2: New neighbours moved into our townhouse complex. They have a small, yappy dog. They tie it out in their backyard from early morning to late at night and it never shuts up. When confronted, they said they’d moved from an apartment to a townhouse so the dog could “have a backyard to play in” — so they certainly weren’t keeping her inside. What can we do?
Q#3: A friend of mine has a big dog. Bull mastiff. Recently the dog bit me on the hand. I got antibiotics and the hospital wanted me to fill out a report. My boyfriend (the dog owner’s business partner) filled it out, as I couldn’t write; he said it was a random dog and we didn’t know who owned it. I received a call from public health wanting to discuss this.
This is the fifth biting incident with this dog. Everyone says to report it, but my boyfriend keeps telling me not to, as it will hurt his business. My conscience says to report, especially as it will happen to someone else (God forbid the little girls next door). What do I do?
Let’s be clear: These letters — and the many others I get like them — are not about bad dogs. They are about bad people. Awful people, actually.
Dogs are not ethical agents, and while these curs are certainly “bad” behaviourally, they are not morally or ethically evil. Their owners, on the other hand, are each, in their own special way, reprehensible.
What’s sad is that, at the end of the day, it’s the animals that will suffer for their owner’s lack of a moral compass. That sucks, but it’s nothing new; this column is too short to list the ways that fin and fur have paid, and continue to pay, for human behaviour.
So, keeping our eye on the ball (i.e. people, not dogs), what to do?
Q#1: Call the cops and report the incident. This is one messed-up dude. The police may know about him already — and if they don’t, they should. They’ll likely want to have a chat and open a file. People who enjoy cruelty in one form aren’t far from other, more serious, forms of violence.
Q#2: Get out your iPhone and make dated recordings from your backyard, several days in a row, of the yapping dog. Then involve the condo corporation. Provincial legislation, and most condo bylaws, require owners to respect their neighbours’ “quiet enjoyment,” within reasonable limits. This dog is way beyond reasonable and now you have recordings to prove it. So don’t deal with this “neighbour” directly anymore; it’s the responsibility of your condo board and management to put the canine symphonics to an end. Demand that they do so.
Q#3: Get a new boyfriend. The incumbent is a jerk who values his business more than you. And report the incident, before those little girls get hurt.
(The Star - September 2, 2017)
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