There's this dog who lives next door to me who I'm a little worried about. Her owners just leave her in the yard all day, they never take her on walks or anything, even when the kids go outside to play they just ignore the dog. She's a big, german shepherd-y lookin' thing, and clearly has a lot of energy. Whenever people walk by, she runs up to the fence and barks, not in a friendly way, either. But when you go up to the fence and talk to her, she calms down and you can tell that she's really pretty scared of you. One time, the people were gone for three days, and they left the dog outside. They supposedly hired somebody to let her in and out, but I never saw anybody show up. I climbed the fence, and looked around in the yard. Poor dog didn't have any water. So I found a dish and gave her some. Like I said, I can't remember ever seeing somebody come over and feed her or let her inside or anything. That only happened once, but it was enough that I'm a little concerned... I want to report the idiot owners to the police, but I'm not sure if what they're doing is a big enough deal... What should I do?
call your local humane society/animal shelter! my friends used to live next door to people who neglected their dog, and it always bugged me, but i held back never doing anything about it. (my friends didn't want to stir up trouble in the neighbourhood.) that was a beautiful, friendly, young black lab, and the people had no idea how to care for it. left it outside on a short chain most of the winter, with nothing but a small dog house. by spring, there was no sign of the dog. i was kicking myself for not doing something. don't fall into the same trap... if that dog is taken away, it will have a much better chance at a happy life than it does now. and you will have a clean conscience! best of luck to you and the dog! fi
What a big heart you have. I just wanna give u a giant hug! Maybe you could offer to walk the dog urself? and maybe when the kids see you playin with it they'll want to do the same thing.
Most cities have a basic criteria with which they judge if the animal is being mistreated. In most places, if the dog isn't provided at all times with shelter water and or food, you may have a case. But it's really hard to get anyone in the position to do anything to care about matters like this. I also think that if they leave the dog alone while they go on vacation, thats another strike against them.
Call your local animal control office and tell them what you have observed. My guess is they will take the dog. You might want to check out all your friends and contacts first to see if anyone would want/take the dog. What happens sometimes with animal control is that if the animal does not get placed after a specific time period, they will euthanize it. Check with the animal rescue organizations in your area as well. They don't euthanize and have a good placement network in operation.
