Call Your Neighbors; Don’t Shoot their Dog

Martha Kennedy 33 Comments

Dusty T. Dog wrote his first ever blog post today. Unfortunately, one of my blogging friends’ little dogs — Duke — also barky, but little, was shot by the neighbors today. He was shot with a pellet gun, it isn’t fatal or even (hopefully) serious.

I see no reason to shoot someone’s dog unless that dog is killing your livestock. Even then I would try to contact the owner first. But my first reaction when I heard of it was that it’s a good thing I wasn’t there. THAT’S the problem. This stuff can escalate FAR beyond what anyone in a fit of temper with pellet gun in their hand probably expects.

It’s just wrong to injure an animal wantonly and sadistically. It’s also wrong (and risky) to be unkind to your neighbors.

SO, I reposted Dusty’s once and only ever blog because it had taken on a sad life it didn’t ask for on another topic completely. More important, the topics of neighbors and bothersome animals is real and serious. A dog writing a blog is not only NOT serious but unlikely.

 

 

33 thoughts on “Call Your Neighbors; Don’t Shoot their Dog”

  1. No offence meant Dusty, but as small Tabby feline, I am happy to meet your online acquaintence online, but loud barking would hurt my sensitive feline ears. Otherwise I am glad to have such a good life in your part of the world, I don’t get this protection of the human thing. As a cat they have to protect me, but I suppose it is the survival of the fittest, and you look very fit to me. Keep barking, that’s what dogs are for I suppose, and protecting their humans of course. Tabby T. Cat

    • Hi Tabby, I wanted to write about you, but my human says everyone already knows all about it from your blog. I wouldn’t bark at you, but I would chase you. I’m sorry, but it’s a fact of canine life. Of course, if you didn’t run away, I’d probably just hang out with you. Still, I understand feline hesitancy when it comes to a barky black dog like me, and we’re so far apart, we will probably never meet IRL. I’m proud to have you as a feline pen pal, Yours forever and ever, Dusty T. Dog

  4. He was barking. Mind you, it’s early in the day, so he isn’t disturbing their sleep or anything.

    This isn’t the first time they’ve shot one of our dogs. They shot Bonnie, too. She’s still got the pellet under her skin. This left a clean hole. I don’t think there’s a pellet in there. Of course, it’s Sunday, so unless I can pony up the who knows how much for the ER vet, all I can do it the basics …

    So I cleaned it. Slathered it with antibiotic ointment. Wrapped it up (I have a lot of bandage stuff from all my surgeries) and surprisingly, he hasn’t removed it yet. I don’t think it hurts him much unless he tried to run on it, but he sure did a lot of bleeding. I can’t tell if it is still bleeding under the bandages. It was a nice, round, as far as I can tell, clean pellet hole in his (facing him) left thigh. He was barking, then I heard him yelp, and he was in here, dribbling blood along the way. He isn’t limping much. A little. He has decided the kitchen is his safe place for now and is showing no interest in going anywhere else. Who can blame him?

    Those miserable assholes. Probably Trump voters, too.

    • Can you let the police know about this? If this isn’t the first time, who knows who or what else they would shoot! How’s the little guy?

      • He’s limping. Bleeding a bit still, but it’s a hole, so it’s going to take a while to scab over. It looks clean though. If I could prove it, I might, though honestly, I don’t want to be the next one in the sites.

      • I just cannot understand that someone has a gun at home and can use it on a harmless little dog. I bark as well, but up to now Mr. Swiss has not decided to shoot me. We were both shocked to read what happened. How can anyone in their right mind attack a small dog. I still cannot get over it. I so hope that everything goes OK.

      • Duke’s pretty agile on three legs. I’m may wrap the wound tonight to see if it seems to be healing. I’m not sure. I have feeling Duke isn’t going to like my moving that bandage.

        My neighbors are assholes. This is not the first time I’ve noticed it.

  5. Hi Dusty–I think you are a beautiful dog. My little Teemu is black, but he also has white in him so people hear ‘tuxedo cat’ and he gets an immediate pass. You are one lucky dog (pardon the pun) to share coffee with your human. I would say you both lucked out with each other.

    • Laws that protect dogs are even weaker than laws that protect people. We are killing a fair number of people, so unless they actually killed him, there is very little protection. Animals are property, no people.

      • When my nextdoor neighbors in CA hated Dusty and attempted to provoke him into biting, Animal Control came out when the neighbors called them. Animal control investigated. my property, met my dogs, and then let my neighbors know they had no grounds to complain unless they were causing trouble. I did put a bark collar on Dusty. It was completely ineffective except in making the neighbors shut up. I also checked the law and saw that neither I nor my dog had violated any. I was really afraid Dusty would end up with a bullet in his head, but it didn’t happen. It was awful. Personally, I think it’s worth calling the cops.

      • They are Family! to my way of thinking. Who are these despicable people????? My head says one thing my heart another. I’ve never been given to retribution, but in this instance, man…… We have neighbours that we were warned to be careful of. Apparantly they put some sort of spice all over the ground that burns cats and dogs feet and tongue and lets face it, their first instinct is to lick. So far so good, but the threat remains.

  8. This was a great post, but then the shooting! I’m so … something … bad … when will people learn that the world isn’t a place where they are the only ones who matter? that a dog isn’t stupid? that what you do is eventually what you’ll get, even if you whinge about it when it happens?
    I hope Duke comes through – I hope the neighbour gets [something bad] and has no one to check on him, until the dog barks to let someone know … and even then …
    I was a foster carer/guardian for kids, mostly teenagers, and the one thing that always brought them around to thinking like real people, and losing the hard edges, was a dog. I was also a dog fosterer (did they ever leave? No), and putting the two together was the best thing that happened in their lives. I think I like dogs better than people (mostly).
    Right, rage rave over, but I’d still like to kick his butt – hard.

  9. The problem is — this is a REALLY small town. We have ONE cop, full time. I can’t prove they did it and if I start a real war with them, the damage could be a lot worse than this. This is the problem with “neighbor” issues. They can easily escalate into something a lot more serious than you intended.

    • Then you’re screwed. My town in CA had 2000 people and no cop, but there was the county department of animal services. HOWEVER my neighbors called them, not me, so there was no question of who called the cops on whom. Somehow your neighbors need to get the message to CALL YOU when Duke is bothering them not shoot the dog. Seriously, the bark collar on Dusty (which had no battery) did the trick. Another thing I did was cover the chain link fence so Dusty could not see through it. That was the most effective stragedy.

  10. Hi, this is Lucy and Jules the cats. We’re taking over for our Mom because we ARE SO MAD. We don’t like dogs, not even a little bit, and its not okay to do shooting at them, or at cats, or at people. Those are our rules and if that shooter came near us, I Lucy would puke on their shoes and they would be sorry.

  12. People shoot dogs with pellet and BB guns and they think it doesn’t mean anything. They are wrong. Duke recovered very quickly, but he’s young, healthy, and the pellet didn’t lodge under his skin. Bonnie’s is still IN her.

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