Thought this was a snark/parody thing, ala "The Onion" or similar.
No such luck.
Mayor Orders Dogs Released Into Forest
On June 13th (figures), the Mayor of Helena-West Helena Arkansas decided that the shelter dogs were too much of a problem, and what with the Humane Society and all on his case for keeping them in crappy conditions and sick, decided to simply give them a "last meal," and let them take their chances.
About ten dogs, including several pit bulls, were "set free." Some of the dogs were very ill. Three dogs were kept back for euthanasia.
Follow-up articles from KARK:
Mayor Explains Why He Released Dogs
PETA Offers Help to Helena-West Helena Mayor
After being inundated by phone calls and media attention, and having the fact that dumping personal property or pets is against Federal Law made clear to him, Mayor James Valley has now stated that he didn't actually release them "IN the forest," he dumped them across the street from the forest, on a residential street:
Helena-West Helena Mayor Releases Dogs Near National Forest
HELENA-WEST HELENA, AR - Mayor James Valley says strays in his town are better off fending for themselves then they are at the local animal shelter. So on Wednesday June 11th, he released nearly a dozen dogs just yards away from a National Forest and from dozens of homes.
A spokesperson for the St. Francis National Forest tells us dumping personal property or pets here is against the law - it's against federal regulations - so the Mayor of Helena-West Helena chose to dump nearly a dozen dogs on a road across the street.
Mayor James Valley says he had no other choice. "It's gotten hot. The animals are housed outside and it has gotten rough to deal with all the things animals need." For the past 5 months the animal shelter has been located inside of the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation lot. According to Valley, "it's kind of like putting a coke machine in the middle of a desk and expecting me to work - really ain't no way." So the city decided to dump the dogs just yards away from the St. Francis National Forest. And just yards away from Shirley Blair and her grandson. Once the local animal shelter shut down, the city took the dogs in. Now Mayor Valley says they've got to go. "We're in a position where we can't maintain or sustain good animal care at our sanitation shop. I don't see a problem with these dogs released, they're in no greater harm now, than when we picked them up."
This appalls me on several levels.
I have two elderly dogs that are coming to their time. Both were enthusiastically, exuberantly abused before I rescued them. Both took several years in a calm, stable, loving home to begin again to trust.
MickeyMouse, who is now 11, and suffering from bone cancer and lymphatic cancer (both very slow growing), and with hip/joint issues, was bred as a bait dog for pit bull fighting, and was a very angry puppy. After several major surgeries on other of my dogs due to her aggressions, as well as several stitching sessions for myself, we found out she was part wolf. Only 1/32nd, but it was enough to make her a very confused dog. She would desperately want INTO your lap, only to show her teeth, all the way to her eyeballs once there, and make lunging snaps at your face. She wanted to snuggle, but not be touched. She wanted to challenge every dog she met, and utterly refused to learn "doggie protocol." She had been beaten multiple times daily from her birth to create a fight response in her. The medical issues she's suffering now are related to bone damage she suffered before she was 3 months old.
On the verge of having her PTS when she was one, and I had just rushed yet another dog to the vet, where she got 42 stitches and a Penrose drain, I stumbled across a wolf dog group on the early internet. They helped me to train her in a new way, the ALPHA/pack leader method, not regular dog training. They explained the contradictions in her nature, and went a long way towards helping me make her the loving, maternal, tolerant dog she is today. We bonded closely during that training, and I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. It was brutal, it was hard, and it was painful - She was stubborn, bullheaded, violent, what-have-you. I had to be more so. Far more Caesar Milan than treat training.
But today, she is my best friend. I would leave this dog alone with an infant, toddler, pet rat, cat, etc., with utterly no fears at all, and she would protect them with her life.
Phoebe was rescued from the middle of the road. A small, black, Heintz57 of a dog, part Pappillion, part Jack Russell, part who knows, she had been dumped, starving, on a freeway, several times. We found this out when someone drove by and told us where she lived. We took her "home," only to be told; "God DAMMIT! The little bitch keeps finding her way back..." They went on to tell us they had just drowned her last batch of puppies, and hoped if they dumped her far enough away she'd go the OTHER direction. They also told us that she was "abusive" to the Rottweilers. She weighs 14 lbs. That day we removed over 200 ticks from her, then went through a painful false pregnancy and the hoarding of socks as her puppies, and two years of cowering, mistrust, and utter terror. She had been beaten lavishly, and ran screaming (literally) when you so much as shook out the newspaper to straighten a page, or picked up the broom to sweep the floor.
She learned to love, she learned to trust. She's 16 now, mostly blind, completely deaf, but still thinks she's a puppy, and regularly takes the BC and MickeyMouse on in wrestling.
I read the above article, so like a sick parody, but real, so terrifyingly real, and I think of my dogs. I think of what would have happened to them if THEY had been "set free." And I cry at the possibilities.
Their time is soon, and they will have all the love and comfort and support they can possibly bear on their way to the bridge.
The ones let go in Arkansas will wander in pain and fear and hunger until they are rescued (optimal outcome, but unlikely), or shot, or poisoned, or become feral and are tracked an hunted like hated things.
They'll have no love, no warm fire, no learning to trust, no beloved hand on the way to the bridge.
I donated to the Humane Society of the United States today. (I wouldn't suggest donating to the Humane Society mentioned in some of these articles, as it "appears" to be the same shelter that set the dogs free.)
I would like to challenge everyone to do the same, in the name of these dogs, if you can.
Further links to the story
Information on Helena-West Helena, AR
Good thoughts to all...
SophK
p.s. Could someone who knows how to do so make a digg to any of these stories? And pass the link to me so I can add it? Thanks so much!
MickeyMouse
Phoebe
MickeyMouse & Dad - Finally ok with laps...