This is all stuff I have written, or felt like writing about animals:
An anti horse slaughter bill I’ve been pushing for, an interview I did with the Oregon Human Society (in 2005) because Portland is DOGTOWN USA 2006.. and the interview I did is why I disagree.. I finally ran into some stray dogs here and fed one.. mistake. oh and something about cops.. that’s it.
The Stray Dogs Here:
So one of the things I came here to do was take photos of tray dogs living here and possibly write (yes write.. shut up) about their survival skills, adaptation to city life.. traffic.. finding food etc. but I haven’t been seeing any in my neighborhood. Last year when I saw them it was random and in several different areas .. you just kind of had to run into them. For the past month or so I’ve been walking for hours every day and even into the worst parts of my neighborhood possible with carrying my camera (good camera) and have seen only one dog and several stray cats. I was surprised when I moved here that I never saw any in this huge park next to me but last night while taking chena out a dog happily walked across the street behind us but without owner.. I looked around and no one was looking for the dog so I assumed it was finally a stray. It was skinny and hungry and had a big wound on its leg. It was interested in Chena but I don’t want her near them … as much as I do like them.. they could have ringworm, parvo, heart worms.. who knows what. So I shooed it away and kept walking.
Today I went to the park again and saw what I thought was the same dog but noticed it didn’t have a wound and was smaller and had no interest in Chena at all. I took Chena home and went back to the park with some water in a flask and a little dog food. Trying to debate the whole time I’m watching it eat if I should just take it home, clean it up, keep it on the porch and try to find it a home; which are not really options. I shouldn’t and can’t let emotions become a factor when I’m trying to study things about their lifestyle but its really hard to see while everyone else doesn’t even seem to notice them.. like they’re pigeons. I shouldn’t even have fed it but it was the first one I got to interact with besides the one with the gimpy leg a month or so ago. After it finished all it could eat and I was out of water.. I went on with some errands. When I came back I took Chena out for a walk again and the dog was sleeping in the same place I had fed it. I didn’t wake it up but knew it was there because I fed it there. Again tonight around 10 Chena needed to go out again. I decided not to take food but just some water in a soda bottle; being as water is more important for survival if food and water were to have a race… and then I wouldn’t feel like I was giving him too much hope.
When I got to the park I couldn’t remember exactly where it was he had been so I was walking in that general direction when I saw that a dog was sleeping under a tree; It was actually a different dog. This one was a husky Akita mix and looked like he would be a popular style of dog here so I couldn’t understand why no one had tried to take him home. I woke him up carefully.. knowing that he could jump up and attack me or just run away if I scared him too bad. He was skittish and wouldn’t come too close but I offered him water and he drank a bowl and went back to sleep. The other dog.. was right where I left him.. and woke up sniffing around for food. I feel terrible now that I fed him but I’m sure he’ll be gone by morning. He looks like an oversized chihuahua with a scruffy collar like a dingo… but I can’t take him home ðŸ˜. Now I know that feeding them is a shitty idea although the right thing to do .. its also the wrong thing to do? I don’t know.. its sad.
Cops:
After seeing the dog with the wound I walked into the park and saw 2 cops harassing people.. seems there’s a curfew I guess. One good thing about being a girl is that you can stare at cops.. or even glare at cops and they wont mess with you. I stared at them and even followed them a bit to see who they’d harass next till I realized it might be me and I don’t have ID, so I went home.
Horseys:
Most of you might not care but I do; Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503) by a vote of 263-146.
This keeps companies, foreign and domestic from killing wild horses in the US and selling them for meat to basically.. french people who want to eat the black stallion. They have ranches setup for adoption of the horses to anyone who want to own a wild mustang (some are still wild in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico etc) and companies buy them at the ranches or at auctions posing as horse lovers/collectors but take them to a slaughter house instead. Totally unnecessary.. there is no shortage of cows to justify eating the horse. Donner party showdown!
Dog town: From the Oregon humane society newsletter; It’s official: Portland is the nation’s best city for dogs. We beat out 62 other towns to be selected by Dog Fancy magazine as Dog Town USA 2006. We’re celebrating next week, Wed. Sept. 13, with a Canine Block Party at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Too bad when I did an interview with the Humane Society a year ago to talk about the ASPCA program they basically said..
Human Society Rep: we don’t have one really.. we have 2 officers that we sent out of state to do disaster relief
Me: so who keeps track of animal abuse, dog fights, neglect etc in Portland?
Human Society Rep: the local police
Me: the local police aren’t trained to handle animals or trained to identify abuse and neglect.. they also wont bust down a door to save a starving cat.. the ASPCA are meant to have all the jurisdiction as a police officer but for the sake of animals
Human Society Rep: we just don’t think its a big enough of a problem I guess and don’t have the funding (her saying this while we are sitting inside one of the most decorated with art, manicured, new age, humane societies in the country.. although its mostly donated funds; they obviously spent their money somewhere )
Me: I can tell you 5 houses right now with neglected dogs, dangerous dogs, people who collect animals. This is a big enough city to have a problem.. any small town is big enough too but you’d think that a humane society in a city would cover this issue. (She started getting nervous and moving around a lot.. probably felt attacked .. which she kind of was )
Human Society Rep: The police are in charge of that here
*- It wasn’t the fact that they didn’t have ASPCA agents.. it was the fact that they DID have them and didn’t use them locally. They wanted the publicity of helping out disaster relief (this was before Katrina) and pretending like the problems at home were small enough to neglect.
Me: (changing subject) So how many adoptions were there last year. (she got all excited and smiled all proud)
Human Society Rep: 28,000, we had a really good year.. the most adoptions of any agency in the state combined.
*-made sense because every time I’ve gone to that human society there is a steady stream of people; apparently mostly lookers and not takers after I hear her next statement.
Me: and what was your put down rate (kill rate) last year?
Human Society Rep: 46,000 give or take.
Me: (trying not to look surprised) oh, that’s a lot.
Human Society Rep: it is but we just don’t have the capacity to keep them all.
me: can’t you give them to no kill shelters or put them in foster homes?
Human Society Rep: we put them in foster homes sometimes but we don’t give dogs to other shelters.
Me: why?
Human Society Rep: I’m not sure.
*- then she said she had to go and I took my little interview.. that didn’t go anywhere where I wanted it to and went home. I wanted to hear that Portland Had similar cases as were on the ASPCA TV shows on animal planet like ; Animal Cops; ASPCA Miami, ASPCA New York… The lady had never even heard of these shows. She wasn’t directly responsible for any of this.. there were many more people above her who had say on these things but as her being someone inside the company; you might thing she would give a shit about these things. So, I told her to go watch the shows if she gets a chance and see how much abuse there really is behind closed doors and tall fences.
I got a B on the paper.. because I had to change the subject of the paper from ‘ASPCA Portland Animal Police’.. to ‘Humane Societies Inability to Use Its Resources. ‘ and had already done months of prep work expecting to talk about the ASPCA.. who were obviously unable to be interviewed.. as they were helping after a tornado in Arkansas.
