SO mad/sad right now...

[dukedogsmom]

What a bunch of jerks! I still like that article that wants to get rid of the two kids because they got a great puppy. It's just like a want ad and describes their looks, etc. I hope these people pay for what they did to poor Bosco. I have no respect for scum like that. Seems like too many people lose all common sense once they've had a child.

[LauraT7]

It isn't that they lose their sense becasue they had a kid - they never had any sense to begin with - or they wouldn't have gotten the dog!

I can feel for you - knowing what you know about Boscoe and the lengths you went to, to 'educate' his owners before things got this bad. But some people aren't just stupid, they're selfish.

My ex's current family is the same way - though I can't for the life of me, figure out how he can allow it. He KNOWS better - as he helped me raise and train our goldens for 7 yrs, and had a dog growing up. ( his folks took good care of their dog!)

Our 'first children' were a pair of golden retreivers - Toby and Tara. Though i was ignorant and got them from a backyard breeder - I saw they had the best care, love and training I could do. They were truly treated like my children. Toby and Tara were 5 when my son, Jon was born. Jon learned to walk holding onto Toby as his 'walker' - they were great with the baby. But I also worked to train the skin-baby and the fur babies to get along. I sure am glad that they weren't 'babies' at the same time! At least, from growing up with dogs, I had more sense than to have puppies and babies together!

We divorced when Jon was 2 and the dogs were 7. I got 'custody' of all three.

My ex had a couple live-in girlfriends and then remarried. All of his girlfriends had dogs - some were more responsible than others. His wife, however - is a real idiot. She has two boys from her first marriage, and they have two together. Right now the kids are about 12, 10, 5 & 3. They continually got puppies (and other pets - hampsters, reptiles, etc.) - they tend to pick 'small' dogs - the 'cuteness' factor, i guess. They've had mixes, Terriers, and the last dog i know of - a black lab. All got sent to the shelter because of 'biting'. The dogs didn't 'bite'. They were untrained babies with too many kids that teased and taunted them. They were abused by the kids, and kept in crates too much, and of course, they nipped ankles and fingers. what puppy wouldn't?

They got marginally smarter the last time and got 'cinders' - the black lab. Tempermentaly, she was great. They 'sent' her to a kennel/training school for 2weeks (they have more $ than brains) and she learned not to nip and basic obedience. But they didn't keep working with her, she was too big for the small dog crate they had, so she lived mostly outside in the fenced yard. They didn't even buy her a doghouse - she slept under the picnic table! ( when my son, Jon visited them - he would sneak her into his room to sleep - Cinders was very sweet and very affectionate.

Jon and I had lost Toby to cancer in March 1999. In Jan 2001, Tara died at age 15. That same Month, My ex's family moved into their new house they'd just built. Because of the moving, and other things - Jon didn't stay at his dad's again until mid-feb - when he was told that Cinders had been sent to the kennel for 're-training' while they moved. ( that's what they told all the kids) But the next time he visited, she still wasn't back. Suspicious, I started calling the area shelters. Sure enough, Cinders had been turned in to the local no-kill shelter.

The shelter was very suspicious of me, until I explained my son's relationship to the dog, and that our dog had just died. We wanted to adopt Cinders, but we were too late. She had already been adopted to another family. They said she was a great dog, perfect temperment, and very easy to find a family for. They had a number of applicants for her immediately, and only kept her long enough to vet, chip & spay her. (of course, a fully trained 2 yr old, gentle lab?) the shelter told me that my Ex and his wife had been - in effect- 'blacklisted' from adopting at their shelter, and probably others - because they had turned over so many dogs! I was surprised to find out that they had 'given up' about one dog a year! not only that, but they had 'adopted' two of those dogs from that shelter, and then turned them over to shelters in other counties to 'get rid' of them! ( I guess the ex is too stupid to realize that Shelters microchip the dogs and that they were all returned to that no-kill shelter eventually!)

My son was heartbroken - in effect, he'd lost two dogs in as many months.

Not long after that - for other reasons - my ex lost overnight visitation rights with our son ( due to his wife) so he no longer sees her or the kids and we no longer know what pets they might have. But i am sure they continue to 'cycle' pets. it pains me to think of how many animals have suffered at the hands of those wild kids and that my ex isn't man enough to at least say 'NO!'.

i do belive that there should be some kind of registry for animal owners - and that limits should be placed on who and how many people can have.

Granted, there are some who can responsibly handle large, multipet households ( some on this board - and I salute you for your patience and large hearts!)

but the 'average' person can't adequately care for animals without knowledge and training (whether the training comes from pure experience or formal 'training)

It would be a HUGE undertaking - but what a difference it would make to so many unwanted and unloved animals!

Laura