Tuesday, October 7, 2014

So why do we wonder when these things happen?

Just a quick blog post today. In Detroit there was a tragic and horrible attack on a man by what is described as a "pack" of dogs. The dogs involved apparently, according to the article, had escaped from home and were running at large. The dogs were described as malnourished.

So why are we surprised? We have the classic setup for disaster: lack of adequate nourishment and a group of dogs running at large. If we in this country could just get the idea of proper and humane care down we would be able to avoid so many of these incidents.

We need to address these cases by looking at what my British friends call the Five Freedoms or Five Needs. They are not rights, but expectations of the human caretakers. The Five Freedoms are:

1) The need to be provided a suitable environment.
2) The need to be provided a suitable (and sufficient) diet.
3) The need to be able to exhibit normal behavior patterns.
4) The need to be housed with, or apart from, other animals.
5) The need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury, and disease.

Pretty simple, eh? No worry about giving rights, or legislating owner vs guardian. Just insisting that humans be responsible for providing the things that animals need to be healthy and properly cared for.

I will bet that the Detroit case reveals several of these needs were not up to speed. And it all comes down to a failure of the human. I hope that responsibility can be properly placed on the human who had a duty to care for these animals.

My sympathy and best wishes go out to the victim Steve and his family, and I hope that he can recover to best level that medicine can provide.

Article link here: Detroit man attacked by pack of dogs.

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