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Originally Posted by gracielove  My problem is that no action was taken to prevent a similar situation in the future. If the man is mentally ill or has dementia he is a danger to himself as well as other life forms around him. It is one thing to have dementia and do strange things now and then and another thing to walk all the way to the train tracks to tie a dog to them in order to not have to deal with it anymore. The fact that he gave a reason for what he did shows he did have some rational thought processes.
My grandmother had dementia. It is a cruel disease and an awful way to lose a much loved family member. However, we had to take precautions in order to keep her from hurting herself. I guess we were very blessed in that she never tried to hurt anyone or anything during her illness although we did have to prevent her from leaving home and getting lost or injured.
To just ignore what this man did because he may have a mental problem is inviting further trouble for himself or someone else. I think we all have seen the problems this country has with not properly dealing with mental illness. It is ignored and sadly too many times either the sick one is injured or the patient injures someone else. |
There are so many kids and adults on drugs and eating up so much of the resources for mental health, people like this often fall through the cracks and believe me, there are those like this out there all over the place! Hopefully, someone in the PD asked social services to follow up with the man but the social workers are so busy with druggies and their issues which are usually violence-related in order to get $$$, that they may be 2 mos. behind and then, if he's not home or doesn't answer the phone, it may take another month before a letter gets to him to call. If he doesn't open all his mail or ignores it, nothing will probably happen if a f/u letter is sent.
But with so many Americans using funds related to their love of drugs and gangs, resources are directed to urban areas to try to house, rehab and process those folks through the system as they wreak so much havoc on society when out of control. This old man with his dog becomes just an afterthought and he'll probably get dropped off the radar awfully soon unless someone in the community steps up. Even if he has a family that is interested and pursues it, if they haven't the funds to get him in a Nursing Home or a highly-prized Medicaid bed(waits in some facilities are over a year and in others, 3 months but you wouldn't want you dog in those with soon-ready Caid beds - believe me) becomes available and he's been adjudged mentally incompetent by a judge, there is no program for him in most cases and no follow up. All of our $$$ goes for drug-related court-appointed lawyers/jail costs/housing/medical care and drugs/rehab/housing and out-patient work programs for them and the elderly and the comparatively "minor" things they do that don't involve guns and mayhem are uncared for. There is just no money for a man like this so often. If his county is running low on funds, he'll likely be left to what his family can get done. If it's just him and his elderly wife and she is not able to get him help, he's out there on his own most likely. And I hope they can't get access to another dog.