July 2, 2008Who let the dogs out? The mayor did.Let me explain some of the editorial decisions I make each day here at The Happy Wag. I often sift through news from wires and on the Internet looking for stories about pets. I usually pass on stories of blatant cruelty because to me they aren't helpful to the people I assume are reading this blog: good folks who love their pets. These stories are usually pretty sickening to me, and I'd rather spare you the same reaction. However, I found this story today, and I will indulge in complete editorial comment as I share it here. I want company in my outrage. On June 11, James Valley, the mayor of Helena-West Helena, a city of 15,000 in eastern Arkansas, decided the best way to deal with the animal control problem was to take the dozen dogs being held in city's the sad, makeshift pound and turn them loose in, ironically enough, St. Francis National Forest. He just dumped them in the woods. Good luck, pooches. See ya. He did not "allegedly" do this; he admits it and stands by the decision. "We needed to get out of the animal care business -- cause we weren't good at it," Valley is quoted on an Baton Rouge television station's Web site. “Nobody has come forth and argued that they were in better condition with the city than they [were in the forest.] Nobody could ever try to make that argument with a [straight] face, because those animals were not,” Valley told another television reporter. Really? Being left to starve in the woods is better than being kept in a crate at the sanitation department and being fed by volunteers? Was there just maybe another choice here, like, oh, I don't know, being placed in a proper shelter or an actual home? An Associated Press story dated June 28 reported that about half of the dogs have been found, but that two or three others were shot by a resident who saw them on his land. Valley has been arrested but never went to jail; he was released on his own recognizance with no bond. He is facing misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, which carry up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine. He could face more charges for leaving animals on federal property. Since this story broke weeks ago, Valley has been deluged with hate mail and phone calls, but he sees himself as the victim here, telling a Helena Daily World reporter "The way I’ve been treated is un-American.” Somehow I just can't work up any sympathy for you, pal. I can, however, envision a fitting punishment in the court of my imagination. Hope your survival skills are sharp, Mr. Mayor. |
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Comments
[July 2, 2008 8:57 PM]
AmandaThe way those dogs were treated is unAmerican! My God! What an idiot. Someone needs to drop this guy in a desert somewhere with no rations or water.
[July 3, 2008 8:20 AM]
EricI think a better punishment for him would be to do the exact same thing he did to those poor animals. Take him and leave him in the middle of a huge forest, only to fend for himself. Only maybe then will he realize the cruelty of what he did. I'd like to see how well he survives in that type of situation.
[July 3, 2008 9:56 AM]
KimMoron. There are plenty of resources out there that he could have tapped to aid in his jurisdictions problems of animal upkeep. It's scary to think that people like him are in charge of cities. The people in that community ought to evict him from office and abandon him in the middle of nowhere.
[July 3, 2008 1:20 PM]
EllenThis mayor actually refused to give access to the dogs to the local humane societies. They had to crawl under fences just to get food and water to the dogs. They begged the mayor to let them take the dogs into foster care, and he refused. Then he turned them loose. This is why Arkansas MUST have a felony animal cruelty law.
[July 4, 2008 10:38 PM]
CoCo : →http://www.cocothebloggingdog.com/I respect your point of view, and maybe I am wrong, but I just wish people were this outraged about the millions of healthy dogs, that are euthanized. I wish they would say it is unacceptable. I'm angry about all the unwanted animals dying, and I wish we could find better ways of handling the pet overpopulation. Killing a dog at a shelter because they are taking up space is legal, and has become the unquestioned norm in this society. I am not convinced that the Mayor is such a dog hater because he didn't want to turn them in to be euthanized. What he did was wrong, extremely bad judgement, but maybe he didn't consider a lethal injection to be a better solution for them. I don't know.
[July 8, 2008 4:42 PM]
Nona : →http://blogs.roanoke.com/thehappywag/Coco, I agree with you and I am also outraged at the millions of animals that are euthanized each year, largely in part to irresponsible people who do not spay and neuter their pets or who buy/adopt pets they are not prepared to train and support.
However, in this case, I think the mayor was less concerned about the welfare of these dogs than he was throwing the next stone in his battle with the local Humane Society that were pressuring him for a resolution to the shelter problem.
And I doubt he thought he was saving them from the needle; volunteers asked him for time to find foster homes for the dogs and he refused. We already know some of the dogs were killed by a farmer when they wandered on to his property, so he certainly didn't save any of them.