Some people don’t deserve dogs

Our dog Frankie, whom we rescued from abandonment, interacts with a kitten.
Frankie died of lung cancer in 2009.

Far too often during the years that I have lived in Lake County, I have observed dogs placed by their humans in positions of neglect: left in cars, left tethered to bark untended in their yards or allowed to wander unleashed.

Our own dear Frankie was rescued from abandonment; he suffered from health problems all of the time we had him and died of cancer in 2009. In spite of his challenges, he was a loving, gentle dog.

I witnessed a situation this week that I think exceptionally tragic. The bus I was riding passed through an intersection in unincorporated Lakeport  where a small brown dog (a chihuahua?) was running in the road.

The dog ran right in front of a truck and narrowly missed being crushed beneath its tires.

During my bus ride Friday, the same dog was in the road again and the driver and another passenger on the bus witnessed the dog hit by a car.

The dog was apparently stunned and was left with people whom we believed to be its owners. I only hope these people did the right thing and took the animal to a vet: they showed little regard for its being kept out of the street.

What makes this situation especially tragic is that it could have been prevented. The owners should have been responsible caregivers and kept the dog out of the road.

The first occurrence of the dog running in the street was reported to law enforcement; intervention by the authorities could have removed the dog from a dangerous environment but to my knowledge, nothing was done.

It breaks my heart to see animals neglected; it undermines my efforts each week to promote animal adoption through the Record-Bee’s Adopt-a-Pet.

Commitment to an animal must be for the animal’s lifetime and, even though I want the Adopt-a-Pet animals to find homes, some people shouldn’t have animals. They don’t deserve the dogs or cats whom fate has entrusted to their care.

Published April 24, 2012 in the Lake County Record-Bee