I know the phrase “responsible dog owner” is not an oxymoron. Most people who own dogs do their best to make life good for their pet. They keep up with shots, have the animal spayed or neutered, and have it under control when outside their home.
I am currently in the process of paying a vet bill necessitated by a loose dog on a trail putting its very big mouth around my leashed dog’s head and tearing her ear. I was on the East Coast when this happened and was lucky to have a house sitter who got my dog to the vet immediately.
I was unlucky in that my dog had run into one of those pet owners who cheerfully yell out, as his or her dog is bounding towards you with lord knows what intent, to not worry because it’s friendly. These same owners labor under the misconception that they have their dogs under voice control because, in the quiet of their own home in the middle of the night when they yell at the dog to settle down, he does. On a trail full of unfamiliar people and other dogs, that control evaporates faster than a politician’s ethics in a roomful of lobbyists.
Trust me, you do not have voice control over your dog if the only time it pays the slightest attention to your commands is when it has nothing better to do. It then follows that you shouldn’t allow your dog to romp freely down a trail that you know contains other animals unless it is properly restrained.
Now I know there are a lot of people who feel it’s their dog’s right to run and romp freely whenever it pleases. They are absolutely wrong. If you want your dog to romp freely, then you either need to actually learn how to have your pet under voice control or, Alaska being the big state it is, you need to find some very empty space where your dog will not accidentally lock his big jaws around some unsuspecting animal’s head.
I’ve had pets in my life since the day I had my first apartment and bought my parrot Adeline from the A&S department store in Brooklyn. I carried her home in a taxicab and have been hooked ever since. I can’t imagine my life not being shared with any number of wonderful creatures.
But I firmly believe that with the privilege of pet ownership comes tremendous responsibility for the quality of life of a living creature that is totally dependent on you. If you are too dumb or too lazy or too arrogant to properly control that animal in a social environment, and that animal hurts another one, the laws are unfortunately written so that it is your animal that suffers and may end up having its life ended prematurely. Apparently we are not yet at the point I think we should be about who gets euthanized in these circumstances.
Anyone who deliberately allows their animal to roam unrestrained and harming other creatures certainly deserves some harsh penalty, even if euthanizing the owner might be considered going to the extreme end of the penalty range.
Almost everyone with a pet has seen that pet occasionally manage to slip past every restraint put in its path. Those animals usually have a very concerned owner chasing them down, putting up lost pet signs and calling the pound to see if their much loved family member has somehow ended up there. If I encounter that dog or cat roaming free, I tend to be very understanding. I once had some kind soul shelter my Mr. T in his garage for an afternoon after one of Mr. T’s failed bids to escape to a warm climate.
But pet owners who continually endanger properly restrained animals while risking their own pet meeting an early demise because of what they did while running free, I can only say that if there were justice in this world, your face would be on the wall of every shelter, vet clinic and breeder’s kennel with a big red line drawn through it indicating you could never have another pet.
Encountering bear and moose while walking is an acceptable risk of roaming the trails of Alaska. Idiot pet owners shouldn’t be.