One of our foster dog “Cino” is now in the clinic, suspect to be poisoned. The 7 puppies we have been feeding since 2 months ago “disappeared” last week.
Our feeding site dogs were poisoned yesterday, 3 semi-adult and 2 puppies. We have been feeding the 3 females since they “appeared” months ago. They were brought to CAS 1st activity day for adoption and obviously non of them were adopted. About 3 weeks ago, another 3 puppies were dumped at this feeding site. Two skinny puppies and one tiny pup with a big head, the tiny pup was sent to the clinic for treatment and transferred to the foster home for recovery.
We lost all 5 of them yesterday. None of them had a proper name yet, we have been calling the 3 black females “Little Yang Yangs” or “The Blackie Family” (because our foster dog “Yang Yang” is originally from that feeding site, she was hit by a car and caused permanent damage to her hind leg, so she is kept in foster home since then).
This “ Yang Yangs Family” was the cutest family I have ever met. They were lovely and extremely friendly, they enjoyed life just like anyone of us. They lived by the roadside, although there is a shelter around, but they still preferred to sleep on the grass by the roadside. The 3 of them playing by the roadside was a common scene to us, we can see them almost every single time we drove by.
It was a rainy night when I drove by that area 2 months ago, I saw the 3 funny puppies playing happily in the rain, they were chasing each other, enjoying every moment in the rain. It sounds stupid and dangerous, but they just loved it. About a week later, I was chatting with the senior volunteer, she told me she was driving home the night before and it was raining heavily, she saw the 3 dogs playing in the rain too and they looked so happy. We shared our stories of the “Yang Yangs Family” and laughed. Yes, stupid but cute.
I know it’s easy for people to dump pups/dogs, especially at a place where people feed strays or care about dogs. It’s even easier for people to contact and request us to take away the pups/dogs/strays. Many will say the current location that the pups/dogs live is too dangerous, because the neighbour or government might poison them anytime, because there is too many cars around that area, because they caused too much trouble to the neighbourhood and too noisy at night which people complains, so they are worrying sick of the pups being killed or ran over by cars.
I know it sounds logic and kind, we should hope for more people like this. But the question is “where should we move them ?” (your house ?). Many said they knew we have many feeding sites, so we can easily move the dogs to one of our sites.
Is there a place without cars, without neighbours, without human at all ? We all live on a remote island is it ? Our feeding sites are located on different islands ? Even if we are, have you ever heard of something called “dog fight” or “territorial fight” ?
Let me tell you something, all volunteers/fosterers are normal human being, living in a normal house in a normal neighbourhood. We all have neighbours, we all received complaints from neighbours, we all have dogs being poisoned or ran over by cars before. But we can only keep apologize and try our best to keep the dogs quiet, we covered our compounds with zinc, we will do anything that we can think of to eliminate the trouble caused to the neighbours, even just a tiny bit.
When you are keeping two dogs and feel that you have enough, you don’t have room for more, then why do you think we are able to keep more than that ? I personally have 8 dogs at home, I received complaints from all sort of people over the years and my parents don’t even like dogs, but I never ever give up on dogs. I can’t remember how many dogs/pups have been poisoned, ran over by cars (purposely), beaten over the years, my own dogs, neighbour’s dogs or strays, basically uncountable. And I have the least dogs at home compared to the fosterers/volunteers !
Our senior volunteer always tell me that, when people dump pups at our doorstep or feeding sites, we can only accept it and think that it is a chance for us to help more dogs. We feed them, we treat them and we sterilize them when they reach maturity. This is what the volunteers have been doing, they even help to sterilize “house/pet dogs”, just because we don’t need anymore unwanted litters !
It’s so easy to dump pups at our feeding sites or at any kind-hearted neighbourhood where residents feed strays. You will probably feel much better than dumping the pups at the rubbish dump because you felt that you have found them a home or good place to live in. If you have done this before and felt better, then let me tell you how irresponsible you are !
First of all, you created more problems to the neighbourhood, to the residents. More dogs means more food and more expenses, have you ever think of how these people feel ? When these residents couldn’t afford or not willing to sterilize the females, they reproduce and more stray puppies are born.
When there is sudden increase of pups/dogs, even just one, the original resident dogs will usually bully or challenge the newcomers. Dogs fight for territory, fight for food etc. They make noises when they fight and they cause serious injuries sometimes. When wounds are not treated, it gets infected, the dog will have a slow and painful death.
What do people do when dogs are too noisy or caused too much trouble ? They get rid of them ! In what ways ? The easiest will be poisoning the dogs or simply call the government and let them handle it. We have seen or heard uncountable poisoning cases, and also people who hit dogs purposely with car or dogs were beaten to death etc.
As for our feeding sites or foster homes, we also have many poisoning cases, especially after we move new dog/pup to the site or litter of pups suddenly “appeared” from nowhere. All the new dogs/pups that were poisoned are innocent, but the most heart breaking moment is whenever I heard that the original resident dogs that were poisoned as well. None of them did anything wrong ! It’s all because of the selfishness of human beings !
Please sterilize your pets or help to sterilize more strays ! Never ever dump puppies or dogs just because you can’t keep them or lost interest in them !
Please adopt a mongrel and stop buying pedigree dogs ! Remember, you are creating more problems if you buy a dog !
By the way, we seldom receive enquiry for adopting a local mixed breed dog, but we often received emails asking whether we have German Sherperd, Rottweiler, Shih Tzu or any pedigree or “small furry dogs” for adoption.
So let me be clear about it, CAS stands for “Care and Actions for Strays” and we aren’t dog breeder, so don’t expect us to have all sort of pedigree dogs up for adoption !
By Jean (31/01/2011)
