YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Animal Shelter

Letter: Hunting dogs should be regulated, too

February 14, 2008

Dear Editor,

In response to Wednesday's Advocate-Messenger story "Lincoln County wants to regulate dogs," Lincoln County certainly has gone to the dogs. And I have a bone to pick with the policy makers: Why would hunting dogs be exempt from the dog ordinance?

Hunting dogs are kept in cages, howling and yowling all hours of the day and night. This is certainly a noise nuisance, and the ordinance should apply.

These dogs are taken out and turned loose, very often winding up on everyone else's property, getting "lost" in populated areas while they encounter people and other animals. I would surely hope the rabies vaccination and the licensing would apply to these animals as well.

Regarding the impounding of dogs thought to be a nuisance, I feel it would be far more effective to lock the offending dogs inside the owner's home and impound the owner instead. That would reduce the number of impounded animals, and I'll bet the owners would bail themselves out much faster than they would bail out their animals.

While everyone likes to complain about the behavior of the dogs, it is often the owner who is at fault. Dogs should not be turned loose to roam freely around a neighborhood, nor should they be discarded like trash on the sides of our roads just because someone is tired of them.

It's too bad we can't have a Lincoln County Humane Society rather than an animal shelter. It's a shame that the animals have to pay the price for the owner's bad deeds.

I guess if hunting dogs can be exempt from the dog ordinance, I can hang a vanity plate on my poodle that says "Huntin.'" He is always huntin' for something.

Laura Zaspel

Crab Orchard

|

|

|