A borough wide solution concerning animal abuse, neglect and starvation is way overdue. I’m tired of the powers that be thinking of us as just bleeding hearts. Let them see some of the horrors we have seen and try and sleep because there isn’t any backing, so our hands are tied. You get a ticket for “molesting a fish” — yes, this term is for real — but you can starve and abuse livestock and pets. Do they not know what feeling hungry is like? Starvation is a very painful and cruel way to go and is considered prolonged pain and suffering according to our statutes. Wildlife Troopers can chase people up and down the riverbank and hide in the bushes and give out tickets. Maybe this could be their job — not only protecting the wildlife but domestic animals too. Their “boundaries” are not limited.
Time to wake up people, you have a problem here. It is the responsibility of the Kenai Peninsula Borough to come up with a solution and quickly. I basically deal with the larger animals and the problem is as bad for them as the dog and cat issue only on a much larger scale financially and rehab time.
I know of the Knight Drive issue — been there — dogs eating their own pups because of hunger, pups freezing to death on steps of the porch because bitch whelped there at 30 below. What people do not get is when there is animal abuse and neglect it goes hand in hand with drug/alcohol abuse domestic violence, child abuse and or neglect. Where you find one issue you’re bound to find another. Turning a deaf ear and closing a blind eye will not make the problem go away; it will continue and grow. The other boroughs are at a wonder why we do not take care of our animal issues. We, as far as I am concerned, are the armpit of Alaska when it comes to this issue. I am also sickened by our homeless children numbers and the rampant drug issues we have.
Thirty years and over 300 horses, llamas, goats and cows we personally have taken in and rehabbed, I’m thinking I have done my part — time for someone else to run with the ball. You can bet your last dime when “National Geographic” comes here to film our farm this fall they are going to get an earful about what goes on in our borough as far as the neglect of the animals and why we have to do it on our own.
Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. To see wrong and do nothing makes you a sharer of the guilt.