Five Dog Family
April 2008
:90
MOST FAMILIES DON’T CONSIDER IT UNUSUAL TO HAVE A FAMILY DOG, OR PERHAPS TWO, SOMETIMES EVEN THREE. BUT MOST PEOPLE WOULD CONSIDER FIVE DOGS TO BE TOO MANY. ONE YORKTOWN FAMILY LIVES WITH FIVE INDOOR DOGS EVERY DAY, AND DOESN’T THINK MUCH OF IT. IN LIGHT OF THE RECENTLY RE-OPENED DEBATE ON STRAY DOGS AND ANIMAL SAFETY IN MUNCIE, THIS COUPLE HAS UNIQUE INSIGHTS TO OFFER INTO WHAT MAKES A DOG VIOLENT, AND WHAT MAKES A DOG SAFE. AUDREY BROWN REPORTS.
For Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who don’t wish to share their real names, it’s just another day at home. In the morning, Mr. or Mrs. Smith will let the dogs into the backyard for some exercise and the chance to take a bathroom break. All five of the Smith’s dogs have free reign of the back yard thanks to an 8 foot privacy fence. (11:41) “When you see people who have 5 or 6 dogs and their tied to trees and that’s all they do and they're out there just getting bit by mosquitoes and they have heart-worms, they don’t get vet care, that’s when you start seeing, I mean what’s the point of having a dog.”
Mrs. Smith says the fence is for the protection of the dogs as well. (5:00) “You have to safeguard yourself against ideas, pre-conceived ideas that other people have about your dog.” She is mainly mentioning this because two of the Smith’s dogs are pit bulls, a species commonly feared and frequently mentioned along with Dobermans in the discussion about dangerous stray dogs and dog attacks.
But Mrs. Smith believes it’s not the breed of dog that determines why an animal will attack. (12:32) “Dogs are pack animals, they’re meant to be in a group, a social setting, with other people and animals to interact with, and if you tie them to a tree, and leave them there their entire life, they go crazy and eventually will bust off of the chain and hurt someone, and that’s when you run into problems.”
As people who have a great deal of experience with rescue dogs and rescue groups, Mrs. Smith believes that there is a misconception about adopting rescued dogs that people should know. (1:18) “People who are not familiar with adopting rescue dogs as opposed to buying a dog from a breeder, they think that if you get a rescue dog, you’re going to get a dog that is somebody else’s reject and there’s gonna be something wrong with it, and that it’s not gonna be as healthy as a dog from a breeder, which is often not the case at all. It’s often the opposite case.”
For WIPB, I’m Audrey Brown.
THE SMITH FAMILY WORKS MAINLY WITH RESCUE GROUPS FROM GEORGIA, WHERE THEY USED TO RESIDE. HOWEVER, MUNCIE AND INDIANAPOLIS FEATURE RESCUE GROUPS SIMILAR TO THOSE THAT THE SMITH FAMILY WORKED WITH IN GEORGIA. TO BEGIN LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE STRAY DOG SITUATION IN MUNCIE AND EAST CENTRAL INDIANA, YOU CAN GO TO PETFINDER.COM.