EDITION OF MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 [PetPowellPress] Before we get to being dumped on “The Lonely Road,” let's just take a moment to remember that this is the first Monday in weeks without the heart-warming sound of "Howdy" from Big Tex while the State Fair of Texas was open for business. Wasn’t it a relief to see the Fair and walk the fairgrounds as if the world might possibly be completely back to normal!
I hardly know where to start with today’s edition — let’s begin with thanking the people who worked hard to give us an entertaining State Fair. If it was so easy to pull off, Houston or Austin would have launched a plot to steal it decades ago.
Speaking of movement, there was some on that Safe Outdoor Dogs bill over the weekend. The bill may be on the brink of “law” this week. We’ll get to that in a moment. Remember, it was on the brink of “law” once before and the guv slapped a veto on it.
But, you may also recall what the guv said when he vetoed the bill. He declared, “Texans love their dogs….” That brings us to a story of Texas dogs who are loved — now that they’ve been rescued from hellish abandonment. That phrase, “Texans love their dogs” needs an asterisk on it and an explanation “*not all Texans. Some are just mean and shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves Texans.” Now, read on about “The Lonely Road.”
THE CONTINUING EFFORTS
TO PROTECT DOGS
DUMPED ON ‘THE LONELY ROAD’
When we opened the email from the longtime rescuer and founder of the Society for Companion Animals Tawana Couch, we immediately thought, “There’s the title of the book.”
Here’s the note Tawana sent on Sunday:
“Most mornings I drive the streets of Dallas looking for strays.
“This story of Daisy was heart-wrenching. I saw a car dump out a white dog on what I call ‘The Lonely Road,’ a dumping long road where there are few houses and [not a lot of] people go down much.
“For several weeks I would leave food out by the creek on The Lonely Road. The food would be gone. I spotted her a couple of times.
“Carol, my friend, decided to go for a walk down the dry creek and in the corner of her eye she sees a mama dog and her 4 puppies.
“For the next few days we would go up to her and feed her. A huge storm was coming and we knew the creek would fill of water and drown the puppies. I crossed the half-full creek and put a leash on mama and we went through knee-high water to cross. I went back for her puppies. As you can see from the picture the creek
did fill up. ...
“Mama has a scar where her imbedded collar was. She is a nice dog and a good mama named her Daisy.”
We asked Tawana, “Just where is ‘The Lonely Road’.” She says it’s in the “general area of the intersection of 2700 Southerland and 3200 Kiest in southeastern Dallas where, Tawana wrote, “the road goes east on Southerland. It is in South Dallas where you see prostitution on the drive on Morrel St. to The Lonely Road. I have picked up many dogs on Morrell St. also very rough area…”
She describes The Lonely
Road as a place “where dogs and trash are dumped.”
She saw Mama being dumped, but was “not close enough to get a license number from the car.
“Just a week prior to Daisy’s dumping, a car dumped 3 pit bulls — mom, dad and daughter — out of their car. Once again not close enough to get a license number. Both dumpings occurred around 8 a.m. All this within a month and a half.
“Daisy we were able to rescue this past Wednesday before the storm. I knew I had to take a risk to cross the water and try to put a leash on her which she let me. She was a little hesitate walking in the water with me crossing the creek.
“Once we made it across, i went back for the 4 babies — 1 male, 3 females. The puppies would have been washed away from the heavy rain.”
What happens next?
The Pit Family is still a rescue project.
In general, once all the rescued dogs are healthy, the SFCA system is to “fly them to shelters in parts of the U.S. that have a waiting list for dogs. Many are pre-adopted before they even arrive.”
Tawana says you can help SFCA by volunteering to transport animals to the airports or by assembling crates and kennels and by fostering! Other ways, too. Go to the societyforcompanionanimals.org to see what you can do.
Tawana says, “Daisy has had litters of puppies and most likely used just for breeding. The people who dumped her, I guess, did not want her puppies this time. She is not used to being petted but is given her love daily. She is at Boykin Kennels in Oak Cliff.”
And, Tawana says, “The great news is that a shelter up north, Animal Welfare Associations, is going to take Daisy and her puppies into their adoption program. SFCA plants to transport them in the first part of December.”
You see, of course, photos of Daisy and her puppies and the creek.
Also, the three members of the Pittie family dumped on The Lonely Road were visited Sunday morning by Tawana. Matter of time until they’re “rescued.”
And, yes, that’s a German Shepherd — as readlarrypowell.com has noted, there are a lot of them being dumped and abandoned around here lately.
Tawana says, “Noe the German Shepherd was picked up this past week on ‘the Lonely Road’ and is being boarded at Boykin Kennel. He will be leaving in November for a shelter in Vermont.”
[LARRY ASIDE: Yeah, the Greater Metrosprawl has a lot of Texas dogs and cats that are waiting in shelters and in rescue groups. And, there are people who don’t mind rolling up to a “dumping spot” on The Lonely Road or Dowdy Ferry Road or many other areas and shoving out the puppies, kittens, dogs and cats. Such behavior is against the law in Texas. But so is speeding and robbing banks. Somebody has to have the opportunity to catch ‘em and the chance to try ‘em. Nobody ever walked into a police station and confessed to dumping a pregnant dog in a creek bed next to The Lonely Road.]
CONTEMPLATIONS
TEXAS ANIMALS & LAWS
You may recall Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the previous version of SB 5. It is a law that makes stupid and irresponsible tethering of dogs illegal [LARRY ASIDE: I used the “lay terms stupid and irresponsible” to refer to people who put big thick chains on dogs kept outside in lousy weather and starvation conditions, etc. I was being kind.] When the Guv vetoed the first SB 5, he declared, “Texans love their dogs, so it is no surprise that our statutes already protect them by outlawing true animal cruelty. Texas is no place for this kind of micro-managing and over-criminalization.” The new bill has a better chance, according to assorted folks in the animal-rescue community. After all, some of the stuff the guv didn’t like has been changed.
Of course, as anybody who’s spent 20 minutes in animal rescue knows, “Texans love their dogs….” but it’s “some Texans,” not “all Texans” as the carcasses of dead animals and the horror of alive and abused animals demonstrate very clearly.
There are the people who dumped pregnant Daisy, the clowns who tossed out the three Pitties and the nitwit who abandoned the German Shepherd on The Lonely Road. Now, these dogs weren’t tethered by big logging chains — as some Texas dogs have been. But, doesn't every mean way to treat an animal deserve a law that carries a stiff jail term and a fine as big as the ego on these “nobody’s lookin’ and nobody cares” animal dumpers?
[LARRY ASIDE: We sort of will have to be — what’s the word — oh, yeah, “convinced” that it’s possible to “over-criminalize animal cruelty.”]
If you go to the Texas Human Legislation Network Facebook page you can keep up with the way things are going with this bill. An amendment was attached to it that stirred opposition. THLN wrote, “UPDATE 10/17/2021: The Safe Outdoor Dogs bill NEEDS YOU! Last night a BAD amendment allowing chains on Dogs was added to SB 5 by Rep. Matt Schaefer of Tyler, TX (House District 6). We will have an opportunity to remove this bad amendment before the House votes again on Tuesday. We need you to remain engaged and continue to call your House Representatives and ask them to VOTE YES on SB 5 and NO to ALL AMENDMENTS.”
There you have it: An opportunity to exercise your right as Americans and Texans to influence your government to do the right thing. You don’t even have to vote — you just need to get your State Rep to vote on your behalf. Who is your State Representative? Ah, here’s a LINK
that’ll help you find the elected official on the public payroll. You just have to know your address. You don’t even have to be a registered voter to speak to an elected official — but that powerful vote will help get the attention of anyone who has to run for office and win to keep getting paid.
In summation, you’d think following the advice “Be kind to animals” would not really need the involvement of the Texas Legislature and the governor. But, how well do those “Yield” and “No Dumping!” signs work?
— Offer opinions or objections by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing dallrp@aol.com. —-