Neighbour's Dog Neglected

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Hi there

I live next to an elderly man whose adult children got him a beautiful male collie a few years ago after his wife passed away. At the time they probably were well-intentioned, but over time it's become clear that he's either unable or unwilling to properly care for the dog.

The dog spends most of his life either indoors or in the tiny unkempt garden at the back of the house. Although the dog has access to shelter in the back garden via the shed which is left ajar, it's a tiny space for such a big dog to spend all its days, and I'm not sure exactly how often he is brought for walks, as I'm not in the house during the day - certainly he gets out at least once on weekends but after that I'm not sure.

However, we learned very recently that the dog hasn't been brought to the vet once since his owner got him, and that he has problems with his back legs, and has had a couple of small "seizures," whatever that means exactly.

Alarm bells started ringing last week when we learned that his owner has jetted off on holidays for a fortnight, leaving the dog in the back garden on his own all day except for the few minutes where one of his owner's sons comes in to feed him - how often this is happening we're not sure as the dog has been howling like a wolf some evenings, and we've thrown him in a tin of dogfood each time which he ravenously devours in seconds.

This to me is animal neglect, and has been very distressing to see.
While I don't think there is malicious intent on the part of the dog's owner, I believe he should surrender the dog to an SPCA or a pound or have him put down - it's just not right.

We've offered to walk the dog for him several times, and politely expressed our concerns on his late-night barking to the owner before, but he just deflects it.

If I wasn't his next-door neighbour, I'd call the DSPCA or the dog warden and have them pay the owner a visit, but things as they are, he would know straight away that it was us.

I'm totally lost as to what to do, or if I should do anything. If anybody had any experience with this type of thing I'd be very grateful for advice.

Thanks

Toulouse

I would call the DSPCA or the warden, you've tried the softly softly approach and it hasn't worked.

At least call for advice. The owner is away, dog is alone and you're not sure if he's been regularly fed and it hasn't been given appropriate vet. treatment either.

But that's just me, I'd be more worried about a neglected dog than a neighbours opinion of me any day!

Tranceypoo

That's so awful, poor dog, it's the age old question isn't it 'why have a dog'?!!

Agree with Toulouse, contact dog warden and if you can take pictures as well that might help, sounds like the dog needs to be taken out of that situation, maybe the owner would surrender it if the local SPCA called.

A neighbour of ours did something similar, got a Beagle puppy for the teenage kids, left it outside, maybe walked once a week, went on holiday for a week and asked my sis in law to feed it 'when you can', ridiculous sis in law agreed. My and himself found out, went mental, husband texted neighbour telling her to get her brother to come and take the dog to his house for the week it could not be left unattended plus it had chased our sheep on 2 separate occassions (another example of electric collar not working!) and he basically threatened her he would call the guards if it happened again. Dog was duly picked up by brother and has since been rehomed via a local rescue after much much hassling by us. Vile people.

meoklmrk91

Also had the issue with a rental property next to ours, neighbours fecked off for two weeks and left their two boxers in the height of summer, it was actually very hot, with no shelter and supposedly someone coming to give them food and water once a day. Dogs were hoarse from barking, I ended up getting a ladder and climbing the fence to see they had no water whatsoever in 20+ weather. Plus the fact that boxers have to tough time regulating their body temp and can easily overheat in the summer or get hypothermia in the winter. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see.

They didn't like me as I had complained several times that the dogs were barking, zero interaction and zero walks, they had broken through our fence a number of times. So I knew that wasn't going to help, I spoke to one of the neighbours who had actual contact with the person who was supposedly looking after the dogs and from then on they came a couple of times a day, I still wasn't happy but at least it meant that the dogs weren't going to die a slow and painful death.

They move out soon after if they hadn't I was calling the dog warden to get him to speak to them. I know that it can be worrisome to get on the wrong side of neighbours, but at the end of the day it's no way to treat animals. If you have the money to swan off on holidays then you factor in the cost of kennels or paying someone to look after your pet properly, otherwise just don't go. I know that I couldn't leave my dog like that. Even if I am only going away overnight I have someone dog sit. And that's the way that it should be!

I am pie

Do what you can for them now. When he comes back, tell him what you think, tell him what you will do if he doesnt buck his ideas up or get the dogs rehomed. If nothing happens in a few days, call the SPCA. He is effectively torturing that dog and it mustn´t be allowed to continue. Better yet if you can speak to the son of the owner while he is away.

Pretzill

It's an awful dilemma op - on one hand perhaps the elderly man is close to the dog and vice versa - and on the other if he is why would he leave him to fend for himself - these situations upset me because if the animal welfare intervene and the dog is put down because of the mans neglect - well I don't know - I think your idea of asking to walk.him is a good one perhaps then you'll get to see if the dog has any injuries etc. and you may be able to build up a relationship with the neighbour and see if he's coping - That leaves a lot of the responsibility on you buy this situation is obviously upsetting for you - and the dogs upset goes without saying - I've had a similiar situation and walked the dog, helped out but his owner and dog had a close bound - the man just was ignorant of the dogs full needs -