One would think this is such a simple concept for retired, well educated (read-been around the block a time or two), folks to comprehend. Rednecks, well sure, I am fully aware of the dog and cock fighting crew. Been around my share of those folks in the deep south. But I have observed two very interesting phenomena, well over a thousand miles apart, both occurring with retired, appear to be well educated, individuals.
In Canmore, this older dude, say 60 yrs old or so, allowed his dogs off leash, one of which had a bit of rottweiler in it. Canmore has a strict leash law because we have elk, etc, in town. Sure enough, he let his dogs off leash and they had sorted out a female cow and started attacking it. By the time I noticed the ruckus out my window, it was foaming at the mouth and getting dangerously close to suffering a heat stroke. It defended itself well, but both of these dogs appeared to have experience in pack kill mentality and both weighed in at over 100lbs. The owner stood by watching as though somehow entertained. I left the comfortable confines of my home and picked up a rock along the way and put myself between the dogs and the elk and thus she managed to cross the river unabated. I told the gentleman, pretty directly as most of you could imagine who know me, that if his dogs attacked me at that point, I would kill them and had the ability to do it. That appeared close to going down until he finally calmed them down.
My wife and other neighbors had already called animal control and the dude was fined heavily, I believe it is $1000 in Canmore. Several months later, two armed RCMP officers show up at my door. Turned out, the dude was fighting his fine and on top of that wanted me arrested for threatening his dogs. It is a criminal offense in Canmore to threaten domestic animals. For 30 minutes these officers stayed in my home and tried to convince me to say I would not do it again and that I understood it was an offense. I was polite, but would not give them what they wanted, even under threat of being arrested. They knew I was a popular wildlife advocate in town and if they did arrest me, the media might have a field day with it. They chose to leave even though they did not get what they wanted.
Now, allow your mind to travel all the way down to St. George, UT. When we are in the desert, we live on the edge of a wildlife reserve dedicated mostly to the Desert Tortoise. Again, dogs are not allowed off leash. If dogs hovered over said tortoises, it could cause them to urinate in fear and possibly expire of dehydration. Some dogs have been known to haul said tortoises back to their yards and so forth. So here this lady is with a bona fide bird dog. She lets it off leash and it chases absolutely everything. We (my neighbors and wife) have asked her repeatedly to not allow it to run off leash. This morning, I was admiring a quail get together. I don't know what was going on, but my back yard was central station this morning. Here comes this older lady, in her 60's, seems quite educated when you talk to her.....bird dog running all over the place chasing the quail and boom, one flys into my window and breaks its neck. She acts like nothing happens and keeps going. I pick up the dead quail, catch up with her on the paved trail out by the road, give her dog the quail and ask if he is going to eat it (knowing full well a bird dog will not eat a bird). He puts it in his mouth, then drops it. Her response was that we should not have built our homes in front of hers blocking her view??? Now what the $&*# does that have to do with a dog off leash and a dead quail? I left her, the dog and the dead bird on the paved trail hoping that by her getting up close and personal with this dead quail , it might have some effect. As I am leaving this scene, some dude goes by on his bike and threatens to call the police....because I dropped the dead bird at her feet. Dejavu I thought, so I turn around and threaten to harm her dog if I caught it killing more wild life without cause or use. I wanted to make sure that I at least committed yet another criminal offence of sorts in the name of fighting off leash dogs. Dangerous folks like me need to be removed form wildlife preserves so domestic dogs can run unabated.
The big question is.....red necks sure....cock fighting, dog fighting, target practice, poaching....you name it. Old retired folks in communities whose lot value is actually predicated by being positioned near pristine wildlife areas!!!!! Why do you want to live in such a place if you have no respect for wildlife and stand by and watch your domestic dogs haze the crap out of same??? At least with the red necks I know what I am getting and would not be so surprised or bewildered.
If she would at least have offered to take the quail home and eat it, I would have been much more amiable about the whole situation.
