Responsible Pet Ownership

ClearerAtN1ght
Charlie
Charlie

My mom was in our backyard today throwing her two year old Pomeranian mix, Charlie, some tennis balls. Our neighbors two sons, about 8 or 9, were walking two Pitbull/ Great Dane mixes. They are huge dogs easily over 70 lbs. They heard my mom and Charlie. They broke away from the two boys and ran to our backyard. They pushed through our fence and attacked Charlie. Charlie suffered several severe bit wounds as well as a punctured lung. Right now he's at the emergency vet in critical condition. Animal control and the police are involved. The two dog's are not vaccinated. They've never bitten before but have been reported running loose. At this point if their owner can't prove they have rabies they will be quarantined and possibly put to sleep.

I'm not against Pitbulls or any other breed of dog. I do believe that people need to be responsible owners, though. Which means legally they need to be vaccinated, and in many places, licenced. I think morally, as an owner, you need to train your dog, socialize them, and properly supervise them. In the case above none of that happened. The dogs aren't trained, vaccinated, licensed, nor were the two boys big enough or old enough to be walking them unsupervised. The boys actually we're going to try to break into the dogs attack to try and get them back. If my mom hadn't been there they would have. They easily could have been bitten or worse. Because of irresponsible ownership the two big dogs are at risk of being put to sleep and Charlie is in critical condition. I'm all for people having pets. I think dogs make wonderful additions to a family, but big or small they need to be taken care of properly. I'm so frustrated that this situation occured at all. With proper training and supervision the two dogs would have never gotten loose. With proper vaccines their lives would not be at risk. Additionally, people could easily have been injured seriously and another dog, Charlie, was.

I really wish that people would really do their research before they got a dog. That they made sure that a certain size, breed, etc was right for them. I wish people would vaccinate, license, socialize, and train their dogs properly. Legally vaccines and licensed are part of owning a dog. Morally training and socializing your dog, in my opinion, is a must.

Responsible Pet Ownership
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