Animal Cruelty

In the past few weeks as I have been watching the news, I have noticed that there have been a very high number of animal cruelty cases. One story was about a family whose dog had just had a litter of 10 puppies. While the family was gone, 4 of the puppies had managed to get out and were in the neighbors yard. A passerby called animal control, not knowing who the puppies belonged to. This person was only trying to protect the puppies, hoping that their owners would find them at the shelter. However, just 5 hours after the puppies arrived at the shelter, they were all put to sleep. When the family contacted the shelter, they were told that the dogs had been put down. When further questioned, the shelter simply claimed that they had made a mistake. My question is why were the dogs put to sleep in the first place? There is ALWAYS someone who will adopt a puppy, which isn't always the case with older dogs. Also, why were they put down so soon after their arrival? If these were my dogs, I would be furious. That is someone's pet, and because they were out of their yard, they were killed.

In another case, I heard about a dog that someone had soaked in ammonia. The chemical burned the dag so severely that it had to be put down. The vet who cared for it said she had never seen anything so horrible done to an animal, and she was still having nightmares about it.

The final story is one that I have heard on a personal account. A kid I know, who lives in Lake Stevens owned a rot weiler (sp?). His dog did not fit the normal, aggressive and dangerous description that rot weilers are known by. Actually, the dog was very calm and friendly. One day, however, the neighbor called the cops and said that he had been in their yard. The police came out to investigate and the officer found the dog sleeping on his own front porch. The neighbor also claimed that the dog had bit him (which was not true). The officer then preceded to shoot, and kill, the dog. The dog was asleep, and had never left its own yard. For no real reason, the officer decided to shoot him. The kid I know is now in court over this issue, apparently the officer has done this before. He has shot and killed more than one pet for no reason.

I am disgusted by the way animals are being treated. Just like humans, they do not deserve to be treated this way. I think that the punisment should be more sever for the people who choose to commit these heinous crimes against innocent animals.