Watch Day Ten Video Tour, Kentucky

 

Diary of Dawn: Day 10, Kentucky —
Fences Really Do Make Good Neighbors...and Good Dogs!

\Another day spent outside of our comfort zones. Sometimes we have to push ourselves to keep going, to keep knocking on doors and speaking to total strangers about what’s right and humane regarding their animals. Some people are uneducated on the matter and many are just bullies. I’ve always despised bullies but ignorance is just as dangerous. I’ve never witnessed so much aggression in chained dogs, the lunging and the snapping I’ve seen so much of in the last 10 days.

Today Tammy and I once again prepared ourselves to face our giants. I realize the power of compassion must be a driving force. That’s difficult to conceive that compassion gives me courage when compassion is so often referred to as a passive act. I find it hard to leave my comfort zone but harder to leave behind the mistreated dogs who need us. I must always find courage to do right for them, to ease their suffering. Some days I’ll spend most of the day drumming up this courage only to hear from negative people that I am wrong for wanting better laws to protect backyard dogs. We pull up to a house and the lawn is mowed because of community ordinances, but they have a chained dog suffering in the back while the community does nothing to protect it.

I hear conflicting arguments: there are already enough laws to protect chained dogs; they must have food, water and shelter and rabies vaccinations. My question is how do you enforce a dog needing fresh water refilled 5-10 times a day? I also hear that chaining limits are too hard to enforce, but I would think it would be much easier to see if a dog is on a chain all day then to see if his water bowl is empty or full.

Today we fired Julie the GPS navigator and hired Crocodile Dundee with an Australian English accent. If you have a GPS you will understand.

Tracy Miller, Rescue Coordinator at the Humane Society met took us around to met chained and penned dogs. There is an ordinance in Georgetown, Kentucky that states the dogs must have a trolley system if they are to be chained. Michelle Rauch went along with us to speak to chained dog caretakers as did her camera man Jason. We appreciated WTVQ’s coverage which can be viewed at:
http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/news.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-04-15-0006.html

The first home we found where the law was being disobeyed had a dog named “Felon” (we knew this because it was crudely painted on his doghouse) and another dog chained in the back. No one was home so we had to leave literature. We spoke with a woman who had two Pit Bulls Cashmere and Findy chained to broken down car axles. She seemed receptive after the camera crew showed up. Next we drove to Melanie and Brian’s where they took us to dinner and put us up for the night. We met their well behaved pack of 5 dogs. Melanie and Brian had a few chained dogs they were concerned about so Tammy and I tried to talk to the owners. At the first stop we spoke to the caretaker’s daughter and son-in-law and the daughter said her mother showed her the valentine they received from Dogs Deserve Better. The son-in-law asked Tammy straight up, “Does that dog make you sad?” The dog he was referring to was along-haired Shepherd named Bandit chained to a dog house under a tree far away from his family. Tammy gave the gentlemen the honest answer, “Yes.” And I prepared myself to hear something negative from the son-in-law, instead, Tammy and I were both surprised to hear him say, “Yes, it makes me sad too.” The daughter is filling out the fencing application and sending it in for her mother and step-father.

Tomorrow is day 11….wow….the journey is almost over! In Kentucky we logged in 36 chained/penned dogs, but we took the interstate much of the way and that always lowers our count. We'll probably count more tomorrow on our way to Virginia. I am positive the count would be a lot higher. The mind can calculate but the heart knows.

Oh, guess what else we saw from Melanie’s back deck through binoculars? More chained roosters! Melanie and Brian confirmed that the roosters are used for Cock fighting, but there is no law against having them if police don’t see the pit or the fighting. What else would someone chain 100 roosters around their yard for? Once again, never back down and never give up, face your giants and leave your comfort zone because backyard dogs need you and if we can’t save our companion pets how can we ever expect to put a stop to something like cock-fighting?

One more thing, the little white dog we rescued in North Carolina is doing great. The Humane Society had him scanned and the micro-chip tracked him back to a breeder in Missouri and then a pet shop in Virginia. So much for expensive dogs being well cared for…this one was only 6 years old, starved and thrown away to die. Now he’s at Margarite's Humane Shelter. If if I were a dog in a shelter I’d want it to be the Cleveland County Humane Society, a happy place for animals in need. Rest assured the pup is in great hands.

Virginia tomorrow, I can hardly wait! Thanks for keeping up with us.

Dawn Ashby, DDB Public Liaison Director

12 Days, 12 States, 120 Chained Dog

Day 1: April 6th, Missouri
Day 2: April 7th, Arkansas
Day 3: April 8th, Lousiana
Day 4: April 9th, Mississippi
Day 5: April 10, Alabama
Day 6: April 11, Georgia
Day 7: April 12, South Carolina
Day 8: April 13, North Carolina
Day 9: April 14, Tennessee
Day 10: April 15, Kentucky
Day 11: April 16, Virginia
Day 12: April 17, West Virginia

We are offering new collars and leashes for as many dogs as we can afford, plus giving out treats and dog food in addition to educational materials and discussions. If you can help fund the campaign and the supplies we'd like to deliver, it would be very much appreciated.

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