Poor dogs

[marylou]

Help! A couple of weeks ago went to visit friend in Place nr Laval who took me round to her friend's house. She had 2 poodles kept in abysmal conditions. 'Cage'in garden with filthy water and excrement everywhere. What can I do ? My friend has tried but no lasting success. Marylou

[louis]

Hi

I'm sorry I can't give any help regarding the dogs but I'm sure if you put the above on "Total France" forum under the pets section you will soon get a reply. I've been thinking all night about these poor little mites and feel as helpless as you.

[JohnRoss]

This post has troubled me greatly. It raises the whole question of what is cruel treatment. We have a neighbour with a pack of hunting dogs of various types kept in cages in his garden. As far as I can see they only come out of those cages in the hunting season with no exercise out of season. They howl and bark a lot and get very excited when their master comes home from work. Now by his standards they are well cared for in that they have regular meals and are frequently cleaned out. But is being confined to a cage for most of the time cruel? I would submit that it is as dogs are pack animals and want to be with their master and his family. At the rate that they are replaced it would seem that their lives are shortened by this way of life. If we ever had to sell this place the noise they make would certainly put some off, he only had one lonely dog ten years ago when we moved in. He also raises a pig for food every two years and the only time it gets out of its shed is to be shot.

Now in order to be fair we have two rescued cats, as kittens, and one young adopted cat which have the run of the house and two large outdoor enclosures with free access during the day and are only shut in the house over night. It troubles me that they cannot roam free but I don't rate their chances during the hunting season as I have seen my neighbours dogs tear rabbits and anything else they come across apart for the fun of it, not to mention his trigger happy teenage kids protecting all his fowl from predators. Farmers and neighbours generally seem to favour putting down poison bait to see off loir and other nibblers and I gather more than one cat in this area has met its fate that way. I think our cats are happy and relate to us and each other very well but can our neighbour say the same? It is however a well established way of life here in rural France. Do we have the right to criticise? You may think yes but what then?.......................JR