brookcove
Posted : 3/27/2008 8:17:55 AM
Wow. See, this is what I mean exactly. This law leaves it sufficiently open to interpretation that if Edie lived next door to me in SC, and knew I kept rescues and young dogs in crates for five hours or more on Sunday when we go to church and lunch, or when I take a dog for formal training, or for flyball practice, or ALL DAY at a sheepdog trial or a flyball tournament - well, Edie, would you make an effort to move the law against me for "cruelty"?
I crate the young dogs when I can't watch them. This is often much more than four hours if I'm doing a long series of chores like shearing, grazing a distant pasture, tagging and tatooing sheep, catching ducks on water - or if I get a call that there's geese on a remote training site available for me to work.
What's the alternative? Have you ever seen a dog go through a plate glass window? It's not a pretty sight. Lots of blood. Body parts sheared off. I've had dogs here that would do it to get to the sheep when I'm not around. Minimally, they'll chew woodwork and eat carpets out of boredom and frustration. Very bad for the digestion. I've had dogs climb the bathroom sink, chew through the medicine cabinet doors, and eat medication. When I was two rooms away. When they get older, or get more experience working under their belts, they realize that their turn will come and they stop this kind of behavior. But in the meantime the only way to ameliorate it is to prevent it. When I'm around they know they aren't missing out and are content to lay quietly. But when I'm not - well, what would you suggest? Bars on the windows? Steel walls and floors? Consumable woodwork?
In their crates, they welcome the lack of stimulation and the feeling that there's no point going crazy. They know nothing is expected of them when they are in a crate, and that it is safe to relax and not worry about anything.
I have a rescue girl here right now who obessively compulsively paces all day long. She burns so many calories pacing that she goes down to skin and bones when allowed to do it. She weighs 25 pounds and eats 4200 calories a day when allowed to stay loose. And she looks like I never feed her. To compare, my other working dogs average around 2200 kcals. My 100 to 150 pound livestock guardian dogs, who spend all night long and half the day patrolling, require around 3200 kcals to stay in shape. If I keep her crated when I'm not working her, I can reduce her food to around 3500 kcals a day and she actually looks decent.
I can't help that we've created these very useful dogs that are freaks of nature. By the same token, I don't think you'd accuse me of evil intent for putting clothing on my Chinese crested hairless dog, because it's pretty obvious in that case that she'd suffer from hypothermia if I didn't do something "unnatural". When we start messing with Mother Nature, we can't look to Mother Nature in every case for managing the product of our meddling. Not every dog can live the life of a "natural dog, with free range of the house and yard."
This isn't to justify abuse. Neglect is abuse. Causing suffering is abuse. But, before imposing our own standards on a situation arbitrarily, it's best to apply common sense and leave room to actually ask whether a situation we are looking at is in reality causing suffering or neglect. The physical and mental condition of the dogs should be our guide, not our aesthetic or romantic notions of dog ownership.