Open Letter: Why I’m Fuming Mad at Some Central NY Dog Owners
I can't even believe that I have to say this, but here we go.
Dear dog owners, if your dog is running around outside without a leash on - you should 1000000% be paying attention to what they are doing.
It blows my mind that some people are so careless enough that they let their dogs wander around the neighborhood, with no care in the world to the fact that they are doing their bathroom business on other people's property.
I had a situation in my neighborhood yesterday where this happened. We have someone who lives on our street whose dog, we thought, got loose. I noticed it in our yard after my dog was going crazy barking out the window.
So, in an effort to make sure nothing happens to the dog, I walked over to the house where I knew it lived to ask if the owners realized she was running loose.
"Hi, I'm not sure if you know this, but your dog is running around loose." That's all I said. I tried to be nice, inform them of what I believed was going on.
"Oh yes, thank you. She's harmless. We've lived here for X amount of years, we can never catch her. She kinda just does her own thing. She'll be back in about a half hour or so."
Are you for real right now? Why is it so difficult to watch your dog?
The way our neighbor made it sound was that she let the dog outside to go to the bathroom, and she kind of just ran away (which is exactly what happened.) First of all, if you know your dog is likely to run away and not let you catch her - why are you letting her outside without a leash on? Second, why are you making ZERO effort to try to get your dog to come back inside?
After hours of watching this dog almost get hit by a car, we had taken our dog to play with his dog friend down the street. Next thing we know, the loose dog runs over and we manage to catch her. Again, hours after she got loose in the first place.
I don't understand how some dog owners can be so careless. If my dog had gotten loose and was running around the neighborhood, you know for damn sure I'd be doing everything in my power to try and catch him. I wouldn't just casually let him run around until he decided to come home.
The worst part was, the dog pooped on not only my lawn, but several other lawns on our street. The owner had zero care in the world. No attempt was made after the fact, from what I observed, to catch the dog.
If you have a dog that isn't trained and is likely to run away, not letting you catch it if it gets out of your grip - put a leash on it. Or, use a tie out if you want it to have freedom outside. Don't let it run around freely.
When I tell you that dog almost got hit by a car at least 10 times, I'm not exaggerating. It was honestly the saddest thing, and was very frustrating. If the dog was running free in their own yard (like mine does) I would have zero room to complain. But, running around free in my yard, in yards of other people on my street, getting things dirty? No. I won't tolerate that.
If you want to own dogs, be a decent human and learn to control them - and have some common sense when it comes to them as well. If you don't want to do that, well, you probably shouldn't own a dog.
Signed, a cranky neighbor with random dog poop still in her yard, on a first name basis with the town animal control officer.
Call me a Karen, but I care about animals. I don't want anything bad to happen to any of them, and this could have ended VERY badly.