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<DIV>Hi, all,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This will bring tears to your eyes and fear to your heart, because if we
don't wake up and smell the coffee, this is just around the corner.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>rita</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PLEASE read this and think about what is going on<BR>right now.
Sandi<BR><BR>> Subject: [petlaw] The last dog<BR>> <BR>> > The Last
Dog<BR>> By Lidia Seebeck<BR>> <BR>> The report came in slowly from
Muddy Gap, Wyoming.<BR>> Someone had spotted a dog<BR>> sniffing around
his house in the bitter cold of a<BR>> Wyoming winter. The<BR>> person was
quite sure that this was a dog, not a<BR>> wolf.<BR>> No, of course
he<BR>> didnt secretly own the dog. That had been banned<BR>> long<BR>>
ago, of course. This<BR>> dog seemed to appear out of the blizzard itself
one<BR>> cold night, scaring his<BR>> daughter silly.<BR>> <BR>> Of
course the animal was transferred to the<BR>> authorities. It was
determined<BR>> that yes, indeed, this person really had found a<BR>>
dog,<BR>> and only its somewhat<BR>> feral behavior kept the land-dweller
from being<BR>> prosecuted for animal<BR>> slavery. This dog had clearly
been in the wild for<BR>> some time. Everyone knew<BR>> that for the last
five years only the police, search<BR>> and rescue, and a few<BR>>
charitable hospices and the like were allowed dogs,<BR>> and the last one,
a<BR>> Yorkshire Terrier, had died last year. There was a<BR>> funeral and
everything,<BR>> and many experts from the animal rights movement<BR>>
hailed the end of canine<BR>> slavery.<BR>> <BR>> ***<BR>> It hadn't
always been that way, of course. Long ago,<BR>> around the
millennium,<BR>> people often owned and bred dogs, and sometimes they<BR>>
ended up in shelters.<BR>> Unfortunately the dogs that ended up in
shelters<BR>> were<BR>> sometimes euthanized.<BR>> Well, some people
didnt like this. So they began to<BR>> change the laws. First<BR>> they
banned dogs that were considered dangerous like<BR>> Bull Terriers
and<BR>> Dobermans. Unfortunately sometimes docile breeds got<BR>> mixed
up into this,<BR>> like the Greyhound, who was eventually maligned
due<BR>> to<BR>> the muzzle it once<BR>> wore while racing around a
track. Predictably, the<BR>> whole practice of racing<BR>> the dogs was
banned as being too cruel and the dogs<BR>> were executed wholesale,<BR>>
being unadoptable due to the laws. Greyhound lovers,<BR>> or Greyters,
were<BR>> broken hearted and tried to tell the authorities<BR>>
that<BR>> the Greyhounds were<BR>> good dogs, gentle with kids and loving
even to<BR>> strangers. But they were soon<BR>> locked up, having been
prosecuted for animal<BR>> slavery.<BR>> <BR>> Another one of the
milestones had to have been the<BR>> passage of Californias<BR>> Healthy
Pets Law, which mandated spaying and<BR>> neutering<BR>> for nearly all
dogs<BR>> except the most pampered of show animals. People<BR>>
were<BR>> outraged but the law<BR>> passed anyways, in an effort to reduce
the shelter<BR>> population. Many<BR>> Californians were aghast that
people were doing<BR>> backyard breeding, and<BR>> others were just mad
that animals were still getting<BR>> killed. Eventually this<BR>> became
the American Spay and Neuter Law, which<BR>> mandated spaying and<BR>>
neutering for all animals not involved in police or<BR>> search and rescue.
The<BR>> next ten years or so saw the canine population<BR>>
growing<BR>> old, and more breeds<BR>> being executed wholesale as they
were deemed<BR>> dangerous. Too late, people<BR>> realized that very
docile breeds were getting<BR>> declared, and they began to<BR>> question
the wisdom of breed-specific legislation.<BR>> By<BR>> then even the
young<BR>> dogs were eight or so, and many were rapidly dying<BR>>
of<BR>> old age, at least in<BR>> the larger breeds,<BR>> <BR>>
***<BR>> The dog in Muddy Gap had been transferred to a<BR>> facility in
Laramie where a<BR>> police dog academy still stood, unused. The dog
was<BR>> soon deluged with<BR>> donations from around the country of old
kibble and<BR>> soft blankets that had<BR>> cushioned their canine
seniors. Animal lovers came<BR>> in<BR>> from around the<BR>> country
to the chance to see and cuddle with the<BR>> dog.<BR>> Lucky soon
responded<BR>> to the attention, which everyone insisted on.<BR>> <BR>>
This dog was clearly quite old, having a very gray<BR>> muzzle and
face.<BR>> Surprisingly, this dog was also clearly part<BR>>
Mastiff,<BR>> which was one of the<BR>> breeds to be Declared rather early
on. Some dogs had<BR>> been preserved as<BR>> police dogs, however, so
this dog was probably the<BR>> offspring of one of those<BR>> dogs. It had
numerous abrasions and bite marks, and<BR>> it<BR>> was theorized
that<BR>> the dog had probably had to fight and hunt a lot to<BR>> stay
alive. No one<BR>> really knew of course.<BR>> <BR>> ***<BR>> As the
War on Dogs continued, canine slavery became<BR>> quite the hot topic,
and<BR>> there were two distinct camps of dog owners and<BR>>
former<BR>> owners. The first was<BR>> that dogs were nice to have around,
but utterly<BR>> miserable and it was good<BR>> that they had mostly been
euthanized. The other camp<BR>> believed something<BR>> quite different,
They honestly believed that dogs<BR>> were<BR>> pack animals and<BR>>
honestly didn't mind the direction of a dog owner,<BR>> rather relishing
the<BR>> leadership the owner provided and basking in the<BR>>
love<BR>> the owner gave. As<BR>> such they felt that canine ownership
(and they were<BR>> very unhappy with the<BR>> term "slavery") was an
ethical thing, and well worth<BR>> the trouble of<BR>> pursuing.
Unfortunately this viewpoint was rapidly<BR>> becoming illegal, and<BR>>
there were numerous people in prison for canine<BR>> slavery. There were also
a<BR>> number of people who lived in the back of beyond who<BR>> were
breeding dogs<BR>> beyond the reach of authorities. In the days when<BR>>
breeding was more common,<BR>> these people such as coyote-dog breeders,
were<BR>> relatively few and far<BR>> between. The shift in laws had
increased their<BR>> numbers, and now even<BR>> responsible breeders were
hiding out, hoping to save<BR>> the last of their lines<BR>> until the
political storm broke. While some of these<BR>> people persisted for
a<BR>> few years, it was rather easy to find a kennel full<BR>> of<BR>>
barking dogs when all<BR>> the other registered dogs were gone. Soon even
these<BR>> people fell to the<BR>> insatiable sweep of the War on
Dogs.<BR>> <BR>> The number of dogs in America had been rapidly<BR>>
dropping and was now at<BR>> 5,673. Mostly these were police and rescue
dogs,<BR>> with<BR>> a precious 10 or 15<BR>> dogs who served as roving
servants, transported from<BR>> hospice to nursing home<BR>> to hospital
to comfort the ailing. Still, the<BR>> occasional dog would show up<BR>>
and be pressed into one of the allowed professions,<BR>> or<BR>> else
euthanized. (For<BR>> some reason, euthanasia was now viewed as the<BR>>
greatest<BR>> gift ever, when it<BR>> was euthanasia which had started the
legal avalanche<BR>> in the first place)<BR>> <BR>> ***<BR>> Lucky
was not doing well in captivity. He had<BR>> suddenly<BR>> developed a
fever,<BR>> and there was no legal veterinarian anymore, since<BR>> they
had all been out of<BR>> practice for years. Former vets clustered around
him<BR>> and tried to remember<BR>> what to do. They gave him all manner
of potions and<BR>> antibiotics but these<BR>> only gave Lucky a really
nasty attitude and equally<BR>> nasty gastric<BR>> disturbances. With
every hour it was clear the poor<BR>> old fella was dying. <BR>> <BR>>
The nation turned in their televisions to watch,<BR>> hourly updates, and
the<BR>> debate on dog keeping began to be opened once again.<BR>> People
reminisced about<BR>> their dogs when they were young, and remembered
good<BR>> times at the dog beach<BR>> or at the dog park. The talk of
allowing dogs once<BR>> again raged just as badly<BR>> as poor Luckys
fever. His health declined quickly,<BR>> and<BR>> within a few days
he<BR>> was on the brink of death. Some news stations had<BR>> completely
stopped<BR>> reporting on anything other than Lucky and the dog<BR>>
debate.. As his last<BR>> sputtering breaths were captured live and<BR>>
transmitted<BR>> around the world,<BR>> people started to call their
Legislators, asking to<BR>> please, please not let<BR>> Lucky be the last
American dog. Unfortunately,<BR>> things<BR>> had gone too far,
this<BR>> was too little and too late.<BR>> <BR>> Lucky truly became
the last American dog.. <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> " We have done the
Impossible and that makes us<BR>> Mighty!"<BR>> Capt Mal Reynolds<BR>>
<BR><BR>Ecclesiastes 9:4 "For him that is joined to all living there is hope:
for a <BR>living dog is better than a dead lion." <BR>Sandi Coy RN, <BR>AADR
Legislative Analyst<BR>Chairwoman Responsible Dog Owners Eastern States
<BR>Responsible Dog Owners of KY <BR>President KY AADR Club <BR>1116 Peppers
RD<BR>Hodgenville KY 42748 <BR>270-358-5729 <BR>We need Responsible Dog laws
that punish the Irresponsible owner and not any
<BR>breed.<BR><BR>____________<WBR>_________<WBR>_________<WBR>_________<WBR>_________<WBR>_________<WBR>_</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's free at <A title="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503" href="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503" target="_blank">AOL.com</A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>