newspaper article This article was in this morning paper "The Valley Morning Star" , community forum... Harlingen, Tx. I thought it interesting enough to pass on. ------------------------------------------------------------ Education needed to prevent epidemic Editor: The Valley is awash with many potentially dangerous large breed dogs in the hands of irresponsible and sometimes deliberately cruel individuals. State, county and city ordinances dealing with domestic animals are rendered almost useless for several reasons, the primary one being the dismal failure of our local officials to effectively inform their citizens of these regulations. How can any community hope to achieve compliance if not one person out of 100 has ever seen a copy of local ordinances? Don't take my word for it; do your own survey in your town among friends and relatives. Want a real shock? Find out how few mayors, commissioners and police do not know what is acceptable when it comes to the basic treatment of animals in their jurisdiction. Widespread ignorance of ordinances ties the hands of good citizens who would be much more inclined to report situations if they knew the law was on their side when pet issues arose. Sadly, many pets' lives could be saved and their suffering reduced if the current ordinances were revealed to the public. If our political leaders want to stick their heads in the sand until a child or adult is seriously injured or killed by one of the fools that think it's cool to have a vicious dog, it will truly be a case of incompetent governance. Pit bulls and other dogs are for sale everywhere - at flea markets, on roadsides, in newspaper classifieds, at questionable pet stores and on the Internet. Until we stop the puppy mills and backyard breeders from flooding the Valley with unhealthy and poorly raised dogs, we can't begin to get this problem under control. Surprisingly, some cities already have bans against people selling pets from some of these sources, but again hardly any citizens or even law enforcement are aware of their own rules prohibiting these type of puppy sales. Taxpayers' money is misspent on animal control if nothing is done to educate people about the law and demand nothing less than responsible, humane treatment of domestic animals in your community. All Valley animal shelters are overflowing with stray and abandoned pets. This situation has been a longtime epidemic in the making. It's time to expose this problem to the public. It's insanity to ignore prevention issues when dealing with an epidemic that affects humans, so why do we continue to disregard a condition that costs thousands of pets lives every year? How do you fight an epidemic? You inform the public of the size of the problem and educate them on what is required of them to help prevent any further cases from occurring. Animal control is part of local health departments. They must know education and prevention is preferred over coping with the aftermath of an out-of-control health concern. Bad people will continue to create bad dogs in our midst because they don't think anyone cares or is willing to change the status quo. Do you know your town's ordinances and are they being enforced? David C. Hubbs Harlingen Jun 20, 2006 - 08:33:38 CDT |
good post!! Makes me want to see what can be done to change this.... hmmmmmmmmm:rolleyes: :rolleyes: |
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