The leg of a dog..

Graces7

My apologies for the odd title, but this is a hard one.

Yesterday, I drove home from Sneem, trading washed out, via the back roads as a treat, and ended up coming to Killarney through the Dunloe Gap.

Just as I was in the straight road after the high and winding places, the car blew a tyre.

Thankfully (getting too old and frail for these events...) there were so many kind and able people to help.

Then I saw a dog way loose way up the road. As it came nearer, I realised it was on three legs, the front right one held up tucked close to its body. And trailing an odd short lead with a loop at the end.

Immediately I thought it has been injured and started to to try to approach and catch it, asking others to please help.

Beautiful dog; I think a collie/German shepherd cross. Looked young too.

One of the men who has stopped to help assured me it was ok.

This was what he told me. That the dog belonged to his neighbour. As it was a valuable dog and very good with working the sheep, they did not want it to stray or run away, so they tied its front leg up. ( the dog was half a mile from the house so clearly it did not work...)

He said its leg would be tied up, but I said no it is not; that of course is what the specially made lead was. To make it easy to tie it up.And I mean tucked hard up under its chest/armpit.

I told him there was clearly something wrong with the dog's leg and it needed attention.

Oh he said, he would tell the neighbours who lived just up the road and they would come and get it.

They showed no sign of doing that before I left.

All the while, even when I was trying to corner the dog to get a look at it, there was not a flicker of movement in that leg.

We talked about this last night and came to the conclusion that the leg had been closely tied up for so long that it had become useless. The tendons would have shortened etc. Reminds me of Chinese foot binding.

This is some 55 miles away from us and I cannot get it out of my mind. I know the SPCA would say it has food, water, shelter etc.

What irked me most was that this man, helping sort the car for me, thought it was fine to do this because that is what his neighbours had chosen to do.

That and the sheer ... words fail.

Dog looked well apart from that and I know dogs do well on three legs,, but this was sheer?? ignorance??

Wondering what if anything I can do; at one stage I looked the man in the eye, crossed my fingers and told him we wrok in animal rescue and that obviously something is very wrong.

Thank you for reading this. I do not know this area well.

charlemont

That's actually disturbing behaviour. Poor dog.

Jimmy Bottlehead

I'd report it. It can't be healthy for a dog to experience that.

Tranceypoo

Jeez, there's nowt as queer as folk, I mean that sounds so disturbing, not just the poor dog, but the brainwashed neighbours who have decided to think that it's ok to do that to a dog because he's a good working dog and besides which, well they just don't want to get involved do they?!

I would definitely phone the SPCA or a rescue near that area, they might already be monitoring the situation but I wouldn't be able to get it out of my mind either (in fact, I can't now!!). Phone. For sure.

christmas2012

yep report it anyway just for peace of mind alone even

Hellrazer

Ive seen something similar before.An uncle of mine based in the middle of no where used to tie a log--yup a great big log onto the dog`s collars to stop them from straying.Never worked cos the dog would just run almost knocking itself out with the log.But every single dog that he owned had a log tied to its collar.


Strange ideas some people have to keep their dogs supposedly "safe"


Would the Spca even bother with a case like this??If the dogs health is fine otherwise would it really be case of cruelty or just stupidity on the owners part??

Waterfordlass

Sweet Lord, this story will haunt me tonight. Please, please report this. Even with our antiquated laws on animal welfare, this has to be considered a case of cruelty. :mad:

Zapperzy

I have heard of something similar with either goats or sheep, a loop of rope withsome pipe attached dragging behind which was supposed to keep them from straying, only a matter of time before one of them was strangled. What gets me is why would you risk ruining a leg if it's a good working dog? I have seen working collies with broken legs having hundreds spent on them to fix them only because they were good valuable working dogs, it doesn't make sense that they would knowingly put this at risk if the dog is so valuable.

Graces7

Thanks for the replies, It has haunted me too, and later today I will make some calls. Bad with asthma because of the weather and when I took the car in, it was to find that none of the tyres will pass the NCT. The woman who sold it to us swore there were new tyres on it too....so trying to deal with this now.

What was worst was the matter of fact way the dog was spoken of. Ah well, they did not want it to stray.. I had heard of the logs etc but this was a new one to me. When I thought it was injured, or even dumped from a car, I would have caught it and taken it to a vet etc.

I imagine they thought it. was a very neat way to keep the dog home; not that it worked anyways.

Beautiful dog too. Ah but all dogs are beautiful!

Graces7

OK; as I had to go to Clon re the car, called in at the Vet hospital there to ask advice. The man's face was a resigned picture.

He has advised me to contact the Dog Warden over in Kerry; will email the coco and ask them to make sure he gets it. The phone number is a mobile and my phone plan does not cover mobiles.

Will cc to SPCA also. See if we can get some help for this fellow.

Unless anyone has a better idea?

Blessings and thanks

later; emails sent cced to kerry coco, kerry SPCA, and a local dog rescue.

Graces7

Had a prompt reply from the County Veterinary Officer.

They are sending a dog warden out there immediately . They say that the Council does not play a role in the implementation of cruelty legislation but that if they are unable to resolve the situation diplomatically they will refer it to the Gardai.

loveisdivine

Graces7 wrote: »

Had a prompt reply from the County Veterinary Officer.

They are sending a dog warden out there immediately . They say that the Council does not play a role in the implementation of cruelty legislation but that if they are unable to resolve the situation diplomatically they will refer it to the Gardai.

Good to see you've had such a positive reply, let's hope they follow through and it gets resolved.

Graces7

loveisdivine wrote: »

Good to see you've had such a positive reply, let's hope they follow through and it gets resolved.

Will keep checking; I had of course forgotten that a dog roaming the roads is not legal. Went for the abuse on this one.