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The
following story is TRUE. While it is an extreme case, it is also the
perfect example of what GretchAnya has been telling puppy buyers for
the last decade: DO NOT use an electric fence. We will no longer
sell puppies to homes where an electric fence is to be used. NO
EXCEPTIONS.
Why we will NOT
sell our puppies to homes with Invisible Fencing.
by Samantha DiMaio-Leach, Jacksonville,
Florida, Sheltie Rescue
I have never
been a big fan of Invisible Fencing, but today I am sick at heart.
Images of a young girl with blood dripping from her face, of another
young girl opening her front door to discover the body of her dog
laying on her front yard as well as the sound of the shot from the
police revolver that killed the dog haunt me.
Like many of the homes in our area, our neighbors had
decided to use invisible fencing. The boundary ran nearly to the
sidewalk on one side and the road on the other side of the home. The
owners had very carefully trained their dog to respect the boundary
and although we no longer used the sidewalk when walking our own
dogs past the house, we never saw the dog cross the boundaries -
only bark and charge up and down the length of the yard.
Unfortunately, Invisible Fencing doesn't prevent anyone
- human or animal - from crossing into a yard so protected. A child
might think twice about opening a gate to enter a yard fenced by
"visible" material, but most won't think at all before stepping a
few feet onto someone's grass. Most folks might think twice about
crossing a whole lawn to enter someone's backyard, but who thinks
about stepping one or two feet off a sidewalk?
So yesterday afternoon, on the way home from school,
one of the children in the neighborhood who knew the dog well
stopped to say 'hello'. He walked onto the grass to greet the dog.
He was accompanied by a girl who adores dogs and she, too, walked
into the yard to greet the dog. Then, the girl bent down to kiss the
dog. And the dog bit her, tearing her lip badly.
The girl's mother called the police and an ambulance.
One of the policeman saw the girl covered in blood while her mother
screamed "That dog tore her face off". The police then went to the
house where the dog lived. The dog was protective of his property,
knew he had done something wrong and also knew the police were
acting in a threatening manner. He growled and
menacingly charged the police; but never ever crossed the boundary
of his yard.
He was standing in the middle of the yard when the
policeman shot him.
Shortly after, the young teenaged girl who lived there
realized something was going on and opened her front door only to
find the dog's body with police cars in the street and police
standing in the road.
You could say that no one should ever approach a dog
they don't know.
That no one
should ever put their face close to a dog they don't know well.
That no one
should ever enter another person's yard without their express
permission and in the owner's presence.
You can argue
that the police should have waited for Animal Control.
You can argue
that the dog was a Mastiff mix, that the police considered it a
bulldog and dangerous.
You can argue,
as do the neighbors who knew the dog well, that the dog was actually
just a big loveable teddy bear of a dog.
You could argue
that the dog was large, looked mean and threatening, as large dogs
frequently do.
You could even
argue that Invisible Fences don't always work - as the police
believe happened in this case. However, my husband was working
outside and saw the children inside the yard.
Each of those
arguments have some truth to them. But what you can't argue with is
that Invisible Fencing is basically no protection at all, especially
when it is run up to your property lines.
It doesn't
protect your dog from animals entering the yard. It doesn't protect
your dog from humans entering the yard. It leaves your dog to do the
protecting. And while that little girl, now awaiting plastic
surgery, might have petted a dog through a "real" fence and still
been bitten, it is doubtful that it would have been her face that
was damaged. It is also doubtful that the police would have felt
they needed to shoot the dog on the spot if it had been contained by
a "visible"
fence.
I am writing about this tragedy primarily for the
rescue community. I give all of you permission to print it and put
it into the packages you give your adopters, to warn them that
Invisible Fencing may be cheaper than 'visible' fencing but it might
not be so cheap in the long run!! To beg them that, if they must use
it, to at least limit the area to just their backyards, not to run
it to their property lines. |
