Why have a dog at all?

My daughter called into her friends house after school today for awhile. Her friend has a lab type mongrel dog, around a year old. Later on this evening she told me how sad she was at how they treated the dog.

Her friend had told the teacher today that her dog had pups that morning. When my daughter called there were no pups to be seen. Her friend said they had gone to her granny's house for awhile. (Though who knows what the truth might be there???)

She said of how they roared and shouted at the dog to come in from roaming the street and how they roughly grabbed the collar and dragged her inside. (She is allowed to regularly run loose.) How they kick her if she is in the way and her friend pulls, pokes and kicks at the dog if it doesn't do what it's told.

Why oh why do people treat their animals in this way??? And why not have an animal neutered, especially since it can cost only £20 and in some cases free here in N.I. Why let a dog just roam the streets?

It broke my little girls heart that one of her pals from school and her family could treat an animal this way. Ny heart aches thinking about it.

My biggest hate of all time is animal cruelty. I cant hear about it, I cant talk about it, I cant think about it, and I certainly cannot witness it.

Animal cruelty could possibly bring out the worst in me. Your right, these people shouldnt even have a dog. They shouldnt have any animal.

What a sad story. I hope you daughter isnt to upset?

Have you thought about passing on your concerns to the RSPCA?

Aww how very sad for your daughter who has been brought up around dogs to see such acts of cruelty..

If anything you should applaud yourself for bringing up such a thoughtful daughter give her a huge hug from us...

If maybe you could have a quick phonecall to the rspca (useless i know but maybe worth an enquiry)

you should invite the friend round to your house and let her see how a dog is supposed to be looked after, it may amke her realise how badly she treats her own dog (probably too late for the prents to change), if not i think i would ring the RSPCA too..poor thing.

and if the dog fights back by biting one of them. the poor dog will be classes as dangerous and PTS poor baby dont deserve that.

Contact numbers for the USPCA are here: http://www.marine-media.co.uk/uspca/

Just click on the 'contact us' bit.

The USPCA here are useless. The last occasion I rang them there was a extremely malnourished dog living at the end of my street with open infected wounds, often just lying on the footpath. I rang to report the condition of the animal and gave them the address of the owner. They never called. A few weeks later the dog was found lying dead outside it's owners back yard entrance. It's not the first time they refused to come out to other case myself or others here reported. They are based in (I think) Co Down. I guess a whole hour and a half journery to here for the sake of a suffering animal ain't enough.

There are no real outward signs that the dog is suffering much either. It's just that she got an inside view of what goes on in their house. I'd be wary of dragging my kid into any battle that may insue reporting their behaviour.

She is upset by it all. She wants to give one of the pups a home as well.... though something tells me those pups may be no more. Perhaps I'm wrong. But the whoe thing makes me and herself so sad.

I will pass on the cuddles to my daughter. :smt001 I'm so proud of how responsible and caring she is around animals. She has a good way with them. She even had a wee robin feed out of her hand today outside. Bless her. :smt001

its possible the puppies don't excist I HOPE .......maybe the child made it up ?

sorry to hear your girl is so upset how horrible for her to be told this

The USPCA are based in Belfast but the service is country-wide although I agree that the service isn't always that good as they are dreadfully under-resourced and are spread too thinly as it is. That link I posted before has several numbers on it but not sure if they are for rehoming centres maybe?

You could always alert the dog warden (via your local council) if the dog is regularly straying. Maybe if they had to pay to bail her out of the shelter they'd think twice about letting her roam...or perhaps they'd decide to leave her there and she might stand a chance of getting rehomed.