From: denise@pprg.eece.unm.edu (Denise J. Richards)
Subject: Re: Pet Population Legislation
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 15:21:01 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <23826@alice.att.com> rhh@alice.att.com (r hardin) writes:
>
>
>Marsha Boggs writes:
>>>Those that were strays, drop-offs, wandered around until somebody
>>>took them in, or until they got run over.  Have you noticed that
>>>you almost never see a run-over dog nowadays?  Lots of raccoons,
>>>no dogs.
>>Come to New Mexico there are stray un-neutered dogs all over the place.
>>And dead dogs along side the road all the time...
>
>That's a good sign - not that running over dogs is good, but that
>they let dogs run.
>
>That means they likely understand what a dog is, how it has
>a sense of neighborhood, how it fits in.

No it isn't. It means that there are uncaring owners that have no
respect for others rights and or safty. It means there are people who
think they are above the leash laws. It means there are people who
are too lazy to properly exercise their pets so they let them out
to get in to mischief and breed indiscriminately producing  unwanted
pets and responsibilities that will most likely be shirked by more
irresponsible pet owners.  

I, personally, have almost had several accidents trying
to avoid hitting dogs. Accidents that could have resulted in bodily harm
to several people and most certain death for the dogs. 
For example, I was in Santa Fe one day driving
down one of the busiest accident prone streets  when 2 dogs decided
they needed to cross 6 lanes of traffic. (The speed limit is 40 mph.)
The dogs managed to avoid the 3 lanes of oncoming and jump over the median 
and right in my path.  I could not swerve right, blocked by traffic; 
swerving left would result in  jumping the median and a head-on collision 
with oncoming traffic. Praying that the car behind we had an alert
driver and was at a reasonble following distance I hit the brakes HARD!
The dogs disappeared from my view as I waited for the impact.  Through
some sort of miracle I managed to miss the dogs. All the seat belts locked 
and no one in the car was hurt. With only inches to spare the dogs jumped 
back on the median. I assume they somehow later made it across the street. 

Another time I was in a mall parking lot.  I saw a nice hound type dog
in the back of a truck. A man came out of the mall and went to the
truck and started throwing trash at the dog. The dog jumped out. The man
got in the truck. The dog jumped back in the truck. The man got out of
the truck and started throwing things again. The dog refused to leave the
truck. The man got in the truck and started racing around the parking lot
trying to throw the dog out of the truck bed.  The man stopped. The dog
jumped out of the truck. The man proceeded to try to run the dog down
in the parking lot. I got out of my truck and ran screaming after the man 
in the truck trying to run down the dog. He eventually saw me and took off.
My children got to witness their mother cursing, and flipping off a stranger.
But I guess thats all right because, and I quote:

	
Here in New Mexico we, " let dogs run.
 
 That means [we] likely understand what a dog is, how it has
 a sense of neighborhood, how it fits in. "



 There are other numerous personal experiences I could cite. But I think
they would be lost on you.

I am not the above, I am the below...


--Marsha
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     boggs@agps.lanl.gov (505) 665-6606
Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663  MS J488  Los Alamos, NM 87545

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