In New Hampshire, they adopt dogs out of shelters within a couple of weeks

How is it that dogs in New Hampshire are adopted out of a shelter within a couple of weeks yet down here in the south, they are being put to sleep at hundreds per shelter per month? Being an educated southerner, I do not believe southerners are dumber than northerners, as in unable to learn. I do think southerners are much more stubborn, though, which may be why these idiots refuse to spay/neuter their animals. I have always believed that education is the key to fighting ignorance (ha, antonyms), prejudice, injustice, and general lack of caring for others. How do you educate a region of people? I post on this blog to help, but only a few people will ever see this. I plan to hang flyers at pet stores, but, again, how many people actually shop in pet stores versus the number of backwater idiots that think they should breed Ole Sam to the neighborhood bitch to sell the pups. Not many. I see all of these adds in the local paper for puppies and it makes me sick. Most of those dogs will end up in a shelter, or worse, and put to sleep. The few lucky ones will be placed through rescue or adopted from the shelter, but not many. This dog that we rescued this weekend (see previous post) is a prime example. She is papered and 5 generation pedigreed, beautiful, and is now in rescue because the breeder is an idiot and sold her to someone who had way too many dogs who then gave her to my stupid neighbors. I have never wanted "big government" or the government interfering in my personal business BUT something must be done. I am coming to believe that all breeders who want to sell pups must be licensed. If you advertise to sell pups, you must give your valid license number. Otherwise, you should be fined and arrested. I am beginning to get behind the mandatory spay/neuter simply because so many people are so irresponsible. Back to New Hampshire, from what I understand, all dogs must be licensed and the fee is much higher for intact dogs than for spayed/neutered dogs. That makes sense to me and seems like a good way, but I can't imagine Joe Redneck is going to go license his hunting dog, who will knock up a number of females in his life and sire a hundred pups who will be put to sleep. How would you police this licensing? Perhaps the local animal authorities should visit up there to see how they do it. It must be working if dogs are not being put to sleep and are being adopted within a couple of weeks. Something must be done and I am sick of the lawmakers making laws for noise ordinances rather than preventing all of these unwanted and uncared for animals.

rescued another dog today

It seems that mistreated/abandoned dogs just fall into your lap sometimes. Or rather they find a way INTO your fence and won't leave. You send them home and they come back again. I have neighbors who had a papered, registered, beautiful German Shepherd Dog. When they first got her, given to them by people who had too many dogs and had already made her very timid, she was ok but very shy. Throughout the summer, she repeatedly escaped their fence, which they couldn't seem to fix, and started coming to my yard to visit with my dogs. She was initially a house dog until they decided there was too much dog hair so they put her in the yard, alone. Over the course of the summer, I repeatedly tried to advise them and help them to be better dog owners, to no avail. Considering I have 4 dogs plus 1 foster, I know a good bit about keeping down the dog hair and such. They wouldn't listen. They wouldn't get her spayed and didn't keep her inside so she may be pregnant with mongrel puppies that can't be placed. I offered to take her to the vet and pick her up if they would just pay, nothing doing. They didn't get her shots updated, only the state-law-required rabies shot. The catalyst this weekend that prompted me to nearly steal her from them was he told my husband that he had hit her so hard that he hurt himself. It was all my husband could do to not shoot that man, I think. We discussed it and decided we would take her, pay for her medical care, and foster her until a rescue could place her. We planned to go over and speak with them on Sunday. Low and behold early Sunday morning, she was trying to push her way under our fence. She was so scared that she fear-snapped at my husband when he reached for her. I got a bag of Snausages and lured her into the garage. After feeding her nearly the whole bag, we were able to get near enough to remove the choke chain the idiots left on 24/7 and put a regular collar on her. We're walking her on leash since she knows how to escape a fence. So far she's doing great. The hours that she spent in our garage before I went over with a release form for them to sign, they had no idea where she was and didn't really care. They didn't so much as walk over and ask if we'd seen her. I don't understand why they even took her when they obviously didn't want a dog. Stupid!
We'll be taking her to the vet and to the spay clinic in the next week or so. Then she'll be ready for a forever home where people will not hit her or hurt her but give loads of love and care. I now have so little respect for my neighbors that I can barely stand the sight of them. That old school idea of beating an animal into submission infuriates me. The poor dog will do anything I ask and is not stupid but you can't expect her to understand what you want if you don't show her. Hitting her only makes her scared to be near you. Somehow, the poor thing knew we'd take care of her. She actually wags her tail when I go down to get her our of her kennel. It will be a challenge to care for two foster dogs on top of our dogs, but what else could we do?
If you know of anyone who is abusing an animal, offer to take or buy the animal and then contact a rescue group to help get them placed into a loving home. You can contact the authorities and report them for animal cruelty, but it's a hard thing to prove and they will take the dog as "evidence". Not a good thing for a dog to be.

Death sucks

I've just found out that one of my graduate school professors passed away this morning. How horrible. He was not an old man, but he became very ill with cancer and passed away a year after diagnosis. He was, indeed, an utterly brilliant man who, I can only hope, will be remembered well. During school, students were afraid of him because he was so intelligent and could make you feel like a complete idiot without even meaning to do so. I found, after gathering my courage one day and just reckoning that I was an idiot compared to him, that he was extremely helpful and nice. Most of his scientific research is so far over my head that it might as well be in another universe, but I know that he will be remembered as brilliant and I am certain he made a large contribution to the scientific community. With 85 publications listed on his CV along with 2 patents, he will be remembered. But, I wonder, will they remember that he was a devout Jew who truly practiced his religion? Will they remember that he could ask a graduate student a question during a graduate seminar that could make or break them and that should only be answered with a "yes" or "no"? Will they remember that he was a zippy dresser who wore the best fedoras? Or that although he may not approve of your actions, he would only gently, if at all, say so. Maybe some will, I know I will. We will miss you Dr. Netzel.