Window on the West
Opinion column
by Mary Rupert
As temperatures dipped to a low of minus 5, with a wind chill of as much as minus 12 on Sunday, pets that were left outdoors in Kansas City, Kan., were in danger.
Kate Fields, executive director of the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, said the Humane Society has been getting calls the last few days from people who see dogs that are chained up outdoors. The dogs had no fresh water, although some had water bowls with frozen water, they needed hay or straw to keep warm, and they needed to be brought indoors in the extremely cold weather.
“Saturday morning, somebody let a chihuahua out to run and it was running around freezing,” she said. The dog was brought to the Humane Society. “We did an intake, and nobody called for it yet.”
Someone else brought in two dogs that were running loose, and had them looked at by a veterinarian at the Humane Society, she said.
The extremely cold weather causes damage to pets’ feet, it is hard for the pets to breathe, and their water freezes in 10 minutes so they have nothing to drink, she said. The law says that they must have shelter, fresh water, food and a dry place to live, she added.
She said she encourages people who call, if they see dogs outside, to ask if the dogs can be brought inside and given fresh water. If not, call animal control, she said. “It is neglect,” she added.
Sometimes the Humane Society will have space for a dog if a resident calls them, but residents call animal control in most cases. If the dog can be contained, animal control will pick it up, Fields said. Dogs that are brought to the Humane Society are then adopted out by PetSmart and animal rescues, she said.
In 2008, the euthanasia rate of animals that were brought in was 80 percent in Kansas City, Kan., and now it’s down to 4.6 percent, she said.
While the Humane Society is not providing hay for animals left outdoors, it is providing medical care for animals, she said. There are currently six veterinarians working with the Humane Society. The Humane Society is trying to provide low-cost animal and pet care, keeping the price low so people can afford to bring animals in, she added.
Fields said Kansas City, Kan., has been lucky the past couple of years as the winter hasn’t been too severe, but this could be a tough winter. There have been some rescue groups going door-to-door to check on pets in the community, she added.
The biggest problem here is stray dogs, she said, as sometimes dogs are dumped. Other times, dogs are let outside and run and don’t come back, she said. The dogs, often not spayed or neutered, can gather into a pack and become aggressive, she said.
Stray cats also are a problem, as some are not neutered or spayed, and can multiply by the thousands in two years, she added.
Fields said people who leave dogs chained up outside all the time are setting them up to be attacked by stray dogs or hit by cars. Dogs that are chained up often become territorial and aggressive, she added.
“We get dogs brought in from animal control with their collar embedded in their neck, people haven’t put their hands on their neck to see if the collar’s too tight,” she said.
“They’re probably not loved and cared for, like we would normally do,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.
“The dogs we see, at least people are bringing them in,” she said. “It’s the dogs that aren’t coming in that we worry about.”