Dogs bark don’t they?

Well, yes they do, but a well cared for dog, kept indoors as part of your family, doesn’t bark for hours. If you are keeping your dog outside, on a chain or in a cage, and it barks or whines or howls for hours, it is trying to tell you something. It is trying to tell you that it is suffering from being kept in these cruel conditions. If you were kept in the same kind of conditions, wouldn’t you complain, and try to get people to help you and get you out of there? Of course you would! So listen to your dog, and find a better, kinder way to keep him or her. Bring him indoors to be part of the family! 

 

A dog kept outside is not safe.

It could easily be stolen. People steal dogs to sell them, or to breed from them, or to use as bait for dogs they are training as fighting dogs.

It could be drugged or even poisoned. If someone wants to break into your house, they only have to throw your dog a tasty treat which has drugs in it, go away for a few minutes, and then come back to break into your house, and then your drugged dog will not bark at them
 
It could be attacked, especially if it barks or howls for hours. Read more about the violence which can erupt if you keep a chronically barking dog: http://www.barkingdogs.net/newsheadviolent.shtm

The Christmas Puppy

The Christmas Puppy


Two weeks before Christmas:

"We'll get a cute puppy for Christmas. The kids will love it, and it can be our guard dog."

Two weeks after Christmas:

"That bad puppy is always chewing our stuff, and biting the kids. It's a nuisance. Perhaps we should keep it outside in a kennel and run when we can't watch it."

Three weeks after Christmas:

"Time to go back to work. Puppy can stay in his kennel and run while we are at work ( 8 hours). Then we'll get it out for a run round."

Three months after Christmas:

"Puppy has to stay in his kennel and run while we travel to work, while we are at work, while we travel home. Then we need to have showers, and dinner, and watch the news, and spend some quality time with the kids. ( 14 hours.) Then we'll get him out for a run round.

Six months after Christmas:

"That darn dog won't obey us when we let him out, so he can just stay in his kennel and run all the time. He's a nuisance barker too, have to keep yelling 'Shut up' at him, and hitting him."

Nine months after Christmas:

"Old Shut Up died today. Found him dead in his kennel and run when we took him some food. Oh well, we'll get the kids a new puppy for Christmas"

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 Please help us stop this kind of thing from happening in New Zealand

Good dog owners don't keep their dog in a dunny

People keep telling me the same sad story, that there are many 'good dog owners' who keep their dogs outside in a kennel and run. The kennel and run is essentially the equivalent of a bed in a tiny shed, and a toilet area. How can it possibly be good to keep a dog in such a tiny area where it has to sleep and sit so close to its latest doggy doo deposit for as long as it takes for the owner to come and clean it? Left to itself, any dog gets as far away from its faeces as it can.


The so called "Code of Welfare for Dogs" issued by MAF, contains the following definition on page 43 - 'run An enclosed area which allows the animal space in which it can urinate and defaecate.' So that is the intended purpose of the run. It’s not intended as an area for the dog to live in, just a toilet area. How cruel for the dog who has nowhere else to go. A dog is basically a clean animal who does not want to soil the area it lives in. Imagine being forced to soil close to your bed, because you are kept in a tiny cage, consisting of a shed to sleep in and a toilet area, 24/7.

She waits, she waits and waits, no-one comes

She is desperately hungry, but no-one comes with food. She is desperately thirsty, but no-one comes with water. She is desperately cold, but no-one comes with even a blanket for her. Who is she? She is a 4 month old puppy on a chain in a suburban garden, somewhere in New Zealand. She is sporadically fed, her water bowl occasionally filled, her shelter, an old woodshed. She stares at the door where she last saw someone go in. She has to sit in her own faeces, she has no choice. She is in pain from an infected sore on her leg. She is continually irritated by the fleas all over her body, and by the flies which come in droves to her faeces. She is sharing the fate of so many dogs in New Zealand, kept on chains or in tiny cages, suffering continually, kept as prisoners, even though they have done nothing wrong.

Yes, this is a story, a representation of the way things really are. No, it’s not exaggerated. It is not even the worse case scenario.

We, as caring Kiwis, need to help dogs like these. Could you help? How could you help? Please send us your ideas, and let’s all work together to put an end to the misery of dogs like this little girl puppy.

Dog Kennel and Sit

Many poor dogs in New Zealand spend their lives imprisoned in a cage, called, entirely inaccurately, a dog kennel and run. The average dog, indeed even the smallest dog, cannot possibly run in the space provided. Only the fleas would get a good run in such a small space. Often the cage is only three or four times the size of its imprisoned occupant. You would not see an animal as large as a dog kept alone in a cage that small, in the zoo. Yet there are many dogs in New Zealand suburban gardens kept permanently in such cruel conditions. These tiny cages are too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, entirely without the possibility of exercise, and all too often, do not even contain a single toy to alleviate the poor dog’s boredom. For the dog, this is a life sentence in a terrible prison. It is also far too easy to forget the poor dog out somewhere in the garden, easy to forget to feed it, to top up its water bowl, to clean its cage. The only thing that might remind the owner that he has a dog, is when it tries to get help and attention by barking, whining or howling, and if the owner is out, the only people who will notice this are the neighbours, who will be upset at the cruelty, or annoyed by the noise, or both, and will start to hate the owner. Do the owners realise that they are turning their neighbours into enemies by keeping their dog like this? How many enemies do they need before they get the message that there is something wrong with the way they are keeping their dog?

So let’s get realistic about the so-called dog kennel and run, and call it what it really is, a tiny cage, not fit to keep a dog in. And let us all do whatever we can to get these poor imprisoned dogs out of these terrible cruel conditions.

Chained dogs are more dangerous

The movement to unchain dogs in America keeps growing.  The organisation 'Unchain Pennsylvania Dogs' now has a new website. Here is a quote from it's front page:

'A study by the Centers for Disease Control, "Which Dogs Bite?" found that chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to bite. The dogs most likely to bite are male, unneutered, and chained.'

This cruel treatment of dogs, keeping them chained, makes them more dangerous.  Not a surprise really.  Dogs are intelligent animals with strong feelings.  Of course they are going to react strongly to such cruelty.

There are many reasons for supporting changes to legislation to stop people keeping dogs on chains, and this is one of them.

An invitation from 'Dogs Deserve Better'

Every February our organization does an education/advocacy blitz by organizing a “Have A Heart For A Chained Dog” campaign. Last year 12,113 Valentine cards were hand-made and mailed to chained dogs across the world. If you would like to read more about our February campaign you can visit http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/vdaywrap2009.html

This campaign is paramount in educating the community, facilitating surrenders of ‘unwanted’ dogs, and helping the owners of chained/penned dogs to choose a better life for their pet.

I am contacting you to ask for your help with our 2010 campaign. I need to collect as many chained/penned dog addresses as possible. You can send them to me via Facebook or at nochaineddogs@gmail.com
 Let me know how many dogs and if they are chained, penned, or both.

If you would like to learn more about the NRV chapter of Dogs Deserve Better you can visit http://dogsdeservebetternrv.org. You can also visit http://dogsdeservebetter.org/
 to learn more about our International organization.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Always,
Shannon Allen
Dogs Deserve Better
New River Valley
Virginia