Chain, Chain, Chain

What is Cruelty?

If you take in a starving dog and make sure it thrives, it will not bite you - This is the fundamental difference between dogs and humans." (Mark Twain)

I often drive by houses where a chained dog is visible from the road next to a ramshackled dog house. To illustrate this all too familiar tableau, Norman Rockwell might have added a water bowl, licked dry and knocked over. I’d love to know why people get dogs if they don’t want to be around them. Sometimes, it’s for the kids. True enough, growing up with a dog is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but kids never take care of the family dog. They’re kids. More to the point—who needs a watch dog out front? Maybe drug dealers? In any event, far too many people grew up in homes where the family dog lived outside and they continue to live this way for no other reason. As George Bernard Shaw put it, “Tradition will accustom people to any atrocity.”

Many authors have written about cruelty to both humans and animals. But what is cruelty? Where do we draw the line? Are there criteria? Of course! But criteria can vary, especially when an animal is out of sight. We hope laws will protect animals, but it is not illegal to chain a dog outside, even though that dog must have shelter, food, water and medical care when needed. The courts are not interested in prosecuting people simply for not taking “good” care of their pets. Dogs have to be half dead, or suffering dramatically, before the cops or cruelty investigators can actually remove the dog. That’s how it works.

I wanted to know whether things are getting better or worse for our dogs in Columbia County. So, I drove down to the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA, my local shelter in Hudson, to speak with the shelter’s director, Ron Perez, also a cruelty investigator, and Lee DeLisle, a retired police officer and cruelty investigator who has been patrolling the county for decades.

“When most people think about cruelty they imagine people physically abusing animals, which of course happens, but that’s not the biggest problem,” says Perez, who is running a sizable and successful shelter with a high volume of adoptions and a boarding facility. “Neglect is the biggest problem we have,” Perez explains. He’s witnessed an uptick in the number of dogs who are arriving at the shelter in bad shape. They’re undernourished, and in need of medical attention because they have been chained and left outside.

Still, Perez is somewhat sympathetic to the pet-owning public because health care for animals and humans is scarce and costly. “Getting a vet appointment has gotten much more difficult and very expensive,” he says. “People just don’t have the money.”

Emergencies—when your dog gets sick at the most inconvenient moment—are the most troubling. Vet clinics once had the staff to respond to calls 24/7. But, no longer. “People [in Columbia County] are sent to an emergency clinic in Latham,” Perez goes on. “Inevitably, they wait hours to see a vet and then they are charged $1,000.00. When people can’t afford this—the dog ends up here, at the shelter. It’s a debacle. There’s a failure on the part of the veterinarians, too. The clinics have been bought up by corporations that raise the fees.”

Readers—Haven’t you found this to be true? How about Medicare for animals? Minimum wages for dogs on guard duty? Paid vacations? I’m (sort of) kidding.

Lee DeLisle, who is also a busy farrier, specializes in equine cruelty. But we all know that he has had a life and death impact on too many distressed cats, dogs and farm animals to count. I asked him how things were going in the county for horses, who are, needless to say, far more expensive to keep than dogs and cats. DeLisle knows a number of people trying to give away good horses, but most of his clients would do just about anything to keep their animals. “They even go out and get second or third jobs, just to be able to feed their horses and keep them in good health,” he says.

Years ago, in the 1990’s, when I volunteered at Columbia Greene, I went on a ride-along with DeLisle when he received a report that an elephant had broken loose and attacked the audience at a small circus performing near Catskill. The elephant had been isolated and chained to a tree in the woods, which the caller felt was cruel. We immediately drove across the river to investigate, and there he was, a magnificent creature, chained to a tree as far from the circus tent as possible. He was screaming, or rather trumpeting, a horribly angry sound. We could not get near him, nor could we blame him for being pissed off.

As it turns out, this elephant, rented from an exotic animal dealer in Canada, was in musth, which is a healthy biological stage for a wild elephant, but in captivity, characterized by through the roof testosterone levels, accompanied by aggression and sexual urges. This elephant should not have been performing. Whether any elephant should be performing in a circus is a whole other story. Suffice it to say that in 2017, New York State outlawed the use of elephants in traveling shows. One year earlier, Ringling Brothers had retired all animals from it’s circuses.

These days, when the public calls Columbia Greene with a cruelty complaint they are referred to the state police, who are now, by law, the first responders. The police may or may not ask DeLisle or Perez to join them on a case as there is good synergy between them, as well as with the District Attorney, who presides over these cases. But DeLisle and Perez are the experts on cruelty, and they are often asked to handle the animals.

Perez worries that cases are slipping through the cracks now that the humane society is not the first responder. He’s currently working on a hoarder case that has eaten up his time with complex negotiations. “There are not 200 animals in this home, but there are 18,” he says. Instead of dragging their owners into court and arresting them, Perez got them to agree to spay and neuter four of their animals, who they can keep, while the rest have been surrendered to the shelter. “We negotiate a lot,” says Perez. “It’s often the fastest way to get the animal out.”

Who are the people neglecting their animals? Is it a question of poverty? No. Both investigators agree that there is a “mental health crisis” when it comes to animal cruelty. When I ask if the majority of people under arrest for crimes against animals are mentally vulnerable, Delisle says, “Some of them are just idiots. If they know they can get away with it, they don’t change their behavior.”

I have to agree with the investigator. Only an idiot, or a drug dealer, would chain a dog outside all day and night. People are repeatedly warned to take better care of their animals, take them in at night, etc—but they don’t. And eventually these are the animals who go from home to home, shelter to rescue. If you adopt one of them—he or she will be forever grateful.

Here’s a typical neglect story. One of my dogs, Anakin, had been left in a garbage bin with the rest of his litter. A kind citizen grabbed them and took them to the local shelter in Albany where he was adopted by a family who loved him as best they could. But the husband—who shall remain nameless—was a batterer and a drug dealer. In the end, after 5 or 6 years, and a divorce, Anakin was abandoned in a house with only a giant bag of kibble. Abandoned for weeks. A kind neighbor called Out of the Pits, a local pit bull rescue, to take him in. After some months, I was lucky enough to take him home. What a brilliant, loyal, and forgiving dog! And what a handsome mug.

Anakin

So, enjoy your dogs and bring them inside, despite the warm weather. One friend recently adopted a puppy from a local farm. When she brought him home, she had to remove 30 ticks from his skin. The whole litter had never been inside!

Jane Goodall recently confessed to a New York Times reporter that dogs were her absolute favorite species. I’m sure it’s true, but don’t tell the chimps!

Below: Pearl and Spike off duty. It sure beats a ball and chain.