Friday, March 18, 2011

Throw Away Animals

We have a dog in the system now that was "kicked out" of his home because his owner got married and his new wife's doxie doesn't get along with Cozmo. Cozmo is a Great Pyrennes mix. Housetrained, leash trained, very sweet. The owner dumped him on his "grandparents" and they called ARF. They will keep him for a couple of more weeks and then they are going out of town, so that means Cozmo will go to a shelter.
ARF doesn't have a space for him. He won't tolerate a crate and he has been known to fight with small, bossy dogs.
It's infuriating to be in this position. But it happens all too frequently. Instead of taking responsibility, people dump dogs and cats as if they are not living creatures. Cozmo seems lonley and confused. They show him on Saturdays for half a day at PetSmart and he seems to be asking, "Why are we here? When am I going home?"
Breaks my heart.
If people could dump their unruly kids on volunteers like ARF, there would be tens of thousands of kids asking, "When am I going home?" The only thing that keeps a lot of people from dumping their kids is the social stigma and the law.
Pets aren't so fortunate.