Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Frankly, from what I see on Ridecamp, I'd rather deal with wild dogs 
and truly feral dogs than with domestic dogs gone wild from lack of 
training.  Ours are obviously much smarter and know when to call it 
quits. Sometimes in the desert we will find ourselves crossing a 
territory where one of the packs has pups denned.  We will have a 
couple of pack members follow us somewhat to the sides barking to let 
the others know where we are until we leave the territory. Even the 
farm dogs will bark when you are crossing their property (no fences, no 
roads, just dirt paths that go right past the farmers' front doors so 
close that you can watch their television at night) and then quit to go 
back to their guard posts.  As for attacking randomly, there are 
usually a zillion little kids around, baby chickens, ducks, geese, 
donkeys, water buffalo, you name it.  If one of the farm dogs even so 
much as touches one of the kids or livestock, it's dead immediately so 
there are rules to be followed.  These dogs will die of starvation 
rather than kill poultry.... I've seen it. It's not pretty, but then a 
lot of reality isn't and we are talking about a level of poverty here 
than virtually no one in the US other than possibly the homeless can 
comprehend.  Farmers here can't afford to neuter their dogs and have no 
one to do it anyway.  They can't afford to vaccinate them either.  Any 
money goes on something important like school books or seed.  They have 
plenty to eat and not much else.  Most of the TV sets are cheap, old 
black and whites that have been given away by wealthier families and 
repaired for the past 15 years.

Nope. Not the same at all.

Maryanne
Cairo, Egypt
On Wednesday, Jun 18, 2003, at 22:35 Africa/Cairo, rides2far@xxxxxxxx 
wrote:
> When I was a kid there was a big German Shepher/Boxer cross named, of 
> all
> things, "Eric" We would cut big long sticks and when Eric chased us 
> we'd
> lure him out into an open field, then wheel around and attempt to play
> "dog polo" with our sticks the whole way back. Our ponies were pretty
> into it but I don't think we ever touched him and he never gave up 
> coming
> after us.

> there have now been about 5 generations of inbred puppies, 10 or 20 per
> year produced at that farm. The guy's sort of an eccentric person who 
> had
> his nervous breakdown in the city and moved to the country. He just 
> feeds
> them as they reproduce. Around here there is no animal control officer.
> We have a sherriff. If you call him he says, "shoot them". Last year I
> was riding on private land next to his farm where I had permission to
> ride. I counted 15 approximately 10 week old puppies (had to be 2
> littlers) on the ridge behind that house. Then about 6 grown dogs came
> after my horse *very* aggressively. I was trying to turn and face them
> but these are dogs who habitually harrass cows and may have even pulled
> down a calf or so. *That* is when I started carrying the super soaker.
> Didn't work. These dogs were very wise about staying just out of range
> and waiting for you to turn your back.  Fortunately we have a new deer
> hunter on that ridge who was encouraged by all the neighbors to take 
> them
> out. I rode my bike by there today and never heard a bark.
>
> Was it cruel to shoot them? I think it was more cruel to let more be
> born. It was definately cruel to the neighbor's sheep they killed. 
> Also,
> with all the talk about rabies it's scarey that I'm pretty positive 
> none
> of them had ever had their shots. A firecracker was the least of those
> dog's worries.
>
> Angie
>
>
>
>
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

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