Can you not see whats going on?

[marty]

"Cruelty to Owners".
Part one:



Part two:

[snipe]

hmmm...well this guy sounds like a looney. but i watch the shows on animal planet and they seem legit. they give many warnings and advice on how to clean up, and care for the pets in question. and then if action is finally taken: one there is proof ample notice was given and secondly when they do confiscate an animal, it is taken to a whole team of vets and vet techs for evaluation. the one in south africa seems pretty good too. they will take an animal for a certain number of days, in which the owner has to fix up the living conditions, then they will return the animal. i feel bad for the lady in the blue shirt (gidget was her dog) they said some of them were over weight, and some had fleas. but they also had air conditioning, and concrete housing? geez those dogs were living better than some people. if confiscating a dog that has fleas is acceptable you could probably take half the dogs in the US. i bet almost every dog has one flea on it, just most don't become a problem.

[RealPitBull]

This seems to me to be a propaganda piece. The first two dog raids they showed obvious puppy-mill type conditions with dogs crammed in crates. And I'm sorry, a nursing dog does NOT look like that Coonhound did. (We all know that 'champion breeder' isn't synonymous with 'ethical')

And what about the owner who just left the dogs for 4 days......20/20 doesn't have a problem with that??? Come on, give me a break. What owner that really cares about their dogs will just leave them alone in kennels for 4 days straight while she is off running around somewhere.

The story keeps saying the SPCAs 'sell' the animals - that's really sensationalistic; we all know SPCAs charge ADOPTION fees.

I'm not saying that SPCAs never over-step their bounds, or do unlawful/unethical things, and there were two things that REALLY bothered me here:

1) The no appeal law in TX
2) The fact that the SPCA doesn't give warning or give owners a chance to better care for their animals instead of just jumping right in and confiscating them.

[windowdog]

The TX law is really indefensible. To come out and state than any organization that large will never make a mistake and thus give owners no recourse is asinine and just primes the system for abuse.

Having said that John Stossel from 20/20 pretty much makes a career out of these kinds of hit pieces. He states opinions in the form of open questions so that he doesn't have to do real hard reporting and fact checking. A real in depth investigative report on actual cases of documented corruption or abuse would be fascinating to watch. All of this is just sensationalism for the sake of ratings.

[snipe]

Jan 27, 2009 6:36:20 GMT -5 RealPitBull said:

This seems to me to be a propaganda piece. The first two dog raids they showed obvious puppy-mill type conditions with dogs crammed in crates. And I'm sorry, a nursing dog does NOT look like that Coonhound did. (We all know that 'champion breeder' isn't synonymous with 'ethical')

And what about the owner who just left the dogs for 4 days......20/20 doesn't have a problem with that??? Come on, give me a break. What owner that really cares about their dogs will just leave them alone in kennels for 4 days straight while she is off running around somewhere.

The story keeps saying the SPCAs 'sell' the animals - that's really sensationalistic; we all know SPCAs charge ADOPTION fees.

I'm not saying that SPCAs never over-step their bounds, or do unlawful/unethical things, and there were two things that REALLY bothered me here:

1) The no appeal law in TX
2) The fact that the SPCA doesn't give warning or give owners a chance to better care for their animals instead of just jumping right in and confiscating them.

for the owner that left her dog for 4 days they weren't clear enough. i mean they said that she bought dog food and kept medical records, so was someone going in every day to feed them? i mean it's possible also that this lady just made a mistake and rushed out of town, and though she was doing the right thing because she was leaving food. but the fact that the only real problems they found were slightly over weight dogs, and some tartar build-up is ridiculous for confiscation. as far as the coonhound, she definitely looked emaciated or at the very least somewhat under fed, just because someone can have one dog win in a show doesnt mean she can raise lots of them. not to mention they were dirty. but the guy with the horses was also a weird case. they seemed fine. lots of open space, none had ribs showing or were just lying around.

at the very least there should be some more rules and regulations surrounding the seizure of animals. who knows, if that lady with the hounds had been given a warning maybe she would have improved the conditions.

[RealPitBull]

Jan 27, 2009 14:12:05 GMT -5 windowdog said:

The TX law is really indefensible. To come out and state than any organization that large will never make a mistake and thus give owners no recourse is asinine and just primes the system for abuse.

Having said that John Stossel from 20/20 pretty much makes a career out of these kinds of hit pieces. He states opinions in the form of open questions so that he doesn't have to do real hard reporting and fact checking. A real in depth investigative report on actual cases of documented corruption or abuse would be fascinating to watch. All of this is just sensationalism for the sake of ratings.

EXCELLENT post!!!