The Law Needs To Change

It was about 2:30 A.M. and the howling started once more. The two poor caged dogs behind our property  just one street over. This has been going on and off, for several years now. I finally got Animal Services in town to go check out the situation but the owners were not home. The investigating officer did leave a notice, and as I found out today, they talked to the owners by phone. So, with a heavy heart, overwhelmed by the persistence of the cruelty these neglectful owners make their two dogs endure, I called the number once more for Animal Services. I was lucky, I spoke with a very caring person, a woman, who listened to my tale of frustration at this miserable situation for two dogs who are kept in kennels for years now, without hardly ever being let out. Food is brought out to them, once every 24 hours, no gentle words are spoken, and like prisoners, their kennel cage is locked again, and that is it. When they cry out, maddened by the boredom and stupefying isolation, without anything to do, without any chance of exercise, fun, socialization, or anything to look forward to, they get yelled at to shut up. Why the hell do these people have two big dogs? Why are they allowed to have dogs at all, since they condemn these animals to a life of loneliness and despair?! The woman at Animal Services agreed with me, and then she said: "The law needs to change". I was so grateful to have someone agree with me, I briefly felt that maybe, someday, the law would be changed. I will look into writing a comment for our local newspaper, and check out the ALDF web page, since they are directly involved with animal laws and improving them. After the phone call, and a guarantee before it ended, that an officer would re-open the already existing file on the two dogs in question, I wished I was head of an animal welfare philanthropy, or part of a larger group connected to these issues. I felt encouraged, but very much alone. Where to start? How to impress on people the seriousness of this reality? If it is wrong for Tony, the tiger in a cage at a truck stop in Louisiana, then why is it not wrong for the countless dogs across this country? I felt like an ant trying to start a climb up Mount Rainier. How to make this issue visible? But I will try. It took TWO YEARS of persistent calls, documentation through photos and logs to get the abused dog that used to live next door help and deliver him from his cruel owner, so that gives me hope. That case was easier to document as the dog was very visible from our back yard, and the abuse callously blatant. This is a slippery slope, as the intention to get the neglectful confinement noticed by the law has no precedent and is lawful, for dogs, not tigers(!) under the current laws. But even when you yell in a desert, you have a chance someone will, eventually, pass by and hear you. Here's to that eventually.