Pets are Family Members

[evelyna]

A lot of people loose their pets when they are forced to move due to work or family circumstances.
They need to pass a law that allows the pets to move with them. A lot of dogs and cats are much neater than a lot of people are.
They passed a law 10 years ago that allowed children into apartments. Pets should be allowed to live with their parents too.
I would never abandon my pet but a lot of people may not have a choice if they have other family members such as Katrina.
The Military leaves rescue dogs behind too.
It is against the law to abandon pets and the gov. cannot have it both ways.

[Rio&Nickysmommy]

Hi! I agree with you too. ?? The Military leaves the rescue dogs behind? Where? I nver heard about that. Incredible:mad: . I have a rule if my dogs cant go I wont go. If I have to live in a hut I will. MY dogs are coming with me.
RIo&Nickysmommy

[Rottweilerlvr]

I totally agree that pets are apart of the family. I am in the Air Force, and am aware of families having to leave pets behind(most are when they go overseas) but you have irresponsible pet owners everywhere, to include the military. I, myself, will never leave my pets behind, I will live in the ghetto, if I have to to keep my pets... As long as there are breed ban laws, I will never be able to live in a apartment again, as I have a rottweiler and mastiff( yea, in some communities english mastiff is on the aggresive ban list???? Where do they get their info??) There is only soo much I can do and some days I get really tired of having to defend my dogs honor and some days I wonder if I'm really making a difference at all in taking my dogs to dog parks, pet stores or other hot spots to allow people to see with their own eyes that not all rottweilers are bad and that mastiff's are truly gentle giants with a touch of comedic relief. But, these guys are my babies, my children(but well within the pack leader order) and I will do anything for them, as they will for me.

Linnea

[Rio&Nickysmommy]

I agree with you- these breed bans and people thoughts are these animals are way out of line. It's not the dogs we should be afraid of its the people. Doesn't the Dad on Orange County Chopper have a Mastiff? Cause that is a big dog. Most big dogs I have encountered are so loveable. Rotti's are sweet too. I really have never met a dog I didnt like but met many people I didnt. It's good you take them out and people see well behaved large animals. Yeh I would live in a card board box before I leave anywhere without my guys. They are my life.
Rio&Nickysmommy

[evelyna]

I feel bad for the ones discarded by uncaring relatives. Maybe People should have wills for animals.
I see a lot of lonley seniors who could also adopt older pets. They may need some help with care and vet bills.
I wonder if a program could be set up to give a lot of dogs a chance.
I would like to see a day when there are no homeless dogs.

[felicity]

I have a rule if my dogs cant go I wont go. If I have to live in a hut I will. MY dogs are coming with me.
RIo&Nickysmommy

exactly, i don't care where i have to live, i would never leave any of my pets behind....they are not just property that can be disposed of, they are part of my family.

i'll just never get some people....



felicity

[GSP4619]

Well said!

[Veruca's Mommy]

exactly, i don't care where i have to live, i would never leave any of my pets behind....they are not just property that can be disposed of, they are part of my family.

i'll just never get some people....



felicity

No kidding. I can just see it now...me, my 3 pits and 3 kittys living in my focus :)

[SmoothCollieluver]

I have to disagree. The law has to protect landlords as well. We own an apt buliding and no long allow pets because of the serious damage that our past renters have caused. Not dogs mind you, we never allowed them because we would have had to take out extra insurance and ours was bad enough already. But we had to totally replace the floor in one apt from rabbit urine, and another was almost distroyed from a litter of kittens. Yes there are good responsible pet owners out there but there are alot of really bad ones too.

As far as breed banning i think it's horrid. It's doggy genocide. You should be able to go threw a CGC type test if you have one of those breeds of dog to make your dog exempt.

[ClarkFarm]

I agree that landlords should be able to decide. It is their property, not the renters. I have seen some really nice houses messed up by irresponsible dog owners, including interior doors chewed through and carpeting ripped up.

On the flip side, I rented a house with a GSD before. The landlord originally had told us absolutely no dogs... I brought my dog to him, showed him her obedience papers, her current vaccinations and license, and paid an extra deposit. I also had a statement from our veterinarian as well as her original trainer. We lived there for two years without any problems until we moved to buy our farm. That landlord was deathly afraid of dogs and leery of the damage one could do but you know what? The lady who rents there now owns a rottweiler. I hope we benefited her in some small way by showing the landlord not all dog owners are so poorly educated.

I also do not think it is fair to judge anyone who is involved in such a disaster as Katrina. You have to understand.. they were not permitted on even the buses leaving their town if they had a dog, even one that weighed a couple pounds. They were not permitted inside any of the shelters either. It is easy to say you would not ever leave your dog behind but when you are faced with either getting your children to safety or putting them at serious risk to save the family pet, I think sadly that many had no real choice. It is hard enough to start over in your life with nothing, let alone being judged for having been forced to abandon your dog. Do not go after the victims, instead go after the laws that fail to protect the pets.
Did any of you see any of the reunions between the victims and their pet? I sobbed along with a couple of them. It is poor legislation that allowed that catastrophe to happen, not poor choices.

[Rottweilerlvr]

I also do not think it is fair to judge anyone who is involved in such a disaster as Katrina. You have to understand.. they were not permitted on even the buses leaving their town if they had a dog, even one that weighed a couple pounds. They were not permitted inside any of the shelters either. It is easy to say you would not ever leave your dog behind but when you are faced with either getting your children to safety or putting them at serious risk to save the family pet, I think sadly that many had no real choice. It is hard enough to start over in your life with nothing, let alone being judged for having been forced to abandon your dog. Do not go after the victims, instead go after the laws that fail to protect the pets.
Did any of you see any of the reunions between the victims and their pet? I sobbed along with a couple of them. It is poor legislation that allowed that catastrophe to happen, not poor choices.

I can agree with this, especially if they didn't have their own transportation to even be able to leave the city... However, if they were capable to leave with their pet, but didn't, then obviously, I don't agree... I know when I was stationed in Miami, Fl for 3 years, when hurricane season approached, I put together a survival bag together, one for me, and one for the dogs, in case we had to leave and leave quickly... Down there, they also had one shelter that allowed pets, had to provide vaccinations and the dog had to stay in the kennel the whole time. Miami officials are getting smart, half the people in the homes that were ordered to evacuate, but refused because the shelters wouldn't let them keep the pets in there, so Miami starts allowing a "pet shelter", which I think is great...

[DoggyMom]

If I was told I couldn't live somewhere because I have a dog, I would go live somewhere else. Lily is like my little girl (I can't have children) and I would be lost without her. Lucky for me, even though I live in student housing, I am allowed to have her. The management here doesn't enforce the pet rules very strictly, and Lily has never been a bother to anyone here, she doesn't even bark unless on command. I used to work at a dog kennel/humane society type place where people could sign over their dogs and cats, and we took in abandoned animals. It was sickening to see some of the reasons the people put down on the paperwork as to why they were giving up the pets. One even read "he's just too old to do anything with anymore" luckily I was not there that morning when the owner signed the dog over, he would have gotten a kick in the nads.

[reeskujo]

Whenever I move where I go is always decided on how pet friendly the house or the apt.is and wether they have breed restrictions as I own an Akita.I won't live anywhere that I can't take my dog.He's my best friend and I'll never give him up because of housing.If you look hard enough you can always find a place that will take pets.I usually start looking months a head of time so that I have a few options.

[nesta21har]

I'm in the Marine Corps and i will never leave my pups behind. Which hey when my time comes up to re-enlist or start a civilian life, chances are i won't have option 1 because of my pups and i wouldn't want to have to worry about going on a deployment and trying to find a temp home for my pups. I will "live in a van down by the river" before i lose my babies. :p

[StarfishSaving]

I also do not think it is fair to judge anyone who is involved in such a disaster as Katrina. You have to understand.. they were not permitted on even the buses leaving their town if they had a dog, even one that weighed a couple pounds. They were not permitted inside any of the shelters either. It is easy to say you would not ever leave your dog behind but when you are faced with either getting your children to safety or putting them at serious risk to save the family pet, I think sadly that many had no real choice. It is hard enough to start over in your life with nothing, let alone being judged for having been forced to abandon your dog. Do not go after the victims, instead go after the laws that fail to protect the pets.
Did any of you see any of the reunions between the victims and their pet? I sobbed along with a couple of them. It is poor legislation that allowed that catastrophe to happen, not poor choices.

Agreed. Some of those people were even forced at gun point to leave their pets behind. In the heat of all that, I don't think any of us can even start to speculate what we'd do. You're not helping your animal at all by staying behind and starving/drowning with it. However I'm not sure it was just legislation that let this happen. If there were better rescue procedures and disaster preparedness in place, the pets might have been able to go, too. Organizations to help (in my area there's a CART team for this purpose). But in a major scramble like that, no one knew what to do. Some of it was legislation but I think a lot of it was lack of foresight (which is ridiculous in a city that sits below sea level...)