A Side Note: Too Much to Think About

Thoughts on Cruelty to Animals

Akiles is a beautiful name for a dog. He's a beautiful dog too; almost a hundred pounds, but not full grown, with a thick black coat, and the well-formed face of a true bred black lab. He's perfect and pretty, but with a pension for tearing things to shreds.

The weather here is awful; a mix of cold and rain that makes everyone run inside. But Akiles is left tied in the yard, his owner completely oblivious or uncaring as the puppy whimpers and barks in the icy rain.

It's no secret that my housemate loves his dog, but I wish he would take better care of him. There are so many people that own animals that have no business owning them.

My housemate is among them.

These pets are ignored, played with only when the owner feels like it, and they lack the attention needed and their "pack" to be with them.

My brother is much the same way, ignoring his cat to the point where he rips out his own hair and doesn't eat for days, for want of a little attention.

"I can't bring him in; he tears things up. I need to train him better," was all my housemate said, then finished his cigarette and went back into the warm house, leaving his puppy to pad around in the rain.

It's not my place to tell him how to raise his dog, but my thoughts: what the hell is the point of even having the dog?

The least he could do is give the poor thing some substantial shelter against the rain. We have a porch just outside my door that would be great for his dog, but my housemate uses it for storage or useless crap, trash, and tools for fixing up the house.

After twenty years of living in a house where we treat our dogs like one of the family, it shocked and saddened me to see these two men treat their pets with little regard as they do.

Please, if you don't have the time or the inclination to truly care for a pet, don't get one. Leave them to home that can really take care of them.

Mina

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Last Side Note: May 10, 2008

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