Doing Something About the Strays
November 25, 2009 | 10:50 am
If you live in Oakhurst, have read some of the Free-For-All Friday comments, or keep tabs on the Oakhurst Message Board, you know the neighborhood has problems with stray dogs.
Michelle writes in about a new collaboration looking to resolve the issue …
The number of strays has really increased- Southern Animal Rescue is a new group focused on the problem right here in our neighborhood. Chamblee Abernathy over at Decatur Village Vets is the organizer of this team of mostly women in our area who are working with DeKalb Animal Control to trap and give healthcare to these animals.
So Kick in the Fit boot camp is “freezin’ for a reason” and doing 12 days in December to stay in shape and help this group with 50% proceeds going to them. We’re calling it the Dog Days of December and it is a lot of fun.
Jump over to Kick in the Fit’s website for more details. Or click the poster to enlarge.
![Picture of the day [34]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2766/4328709238_033fd33ecc_t.jpg "Picture of the day [34]")
Kick in the Fit is the best! Everyone should come out and help the dogs!
Seriously guys – this is the only local owned bootcamp operating in our area – AND – they are focusing on our local issues !
Come show your support – loose some pounds- meet a bunch of great folks – and make a dent in this growing issue of abandoned and homeless pets in our neighborhoods.
I smell an email campaign to comment on this thread. Lots of new commenters with exclamation point comments in moderation too.
Let’s keep the self-promotion at a reasonable level please.
It has been disturbing to read many of the comments on the message board & I have been very surprised to hear some of the opinions of my neighbors. So grateful that someone cares enough to help these animals that are in need. Yay! And thank you to them.
I get the stray dogs issue and see why it’s very annoying and even dangerous to have loose dogs running about. Where I have a problem with this is when I hear a post about how someone’s cat was injured/killed by a dog. My understanding is that there is a leash law for cats in Decatur too, and frankly I don’t like digging in my yard and finding little cat poops everywhere.
To me, owners who let their cats run free are just as irresponsible as those who chronically let their dogs go free range. We have cars, coyotes, animal control employees, rabid raccoons, very warped people, etc. that are grave hazards to cats. A few years ago, my neighbor was bit by a cat who was roaming free and seemed friendly. The cat apparently came up to be petted but suddenly decided to take a chunk out of my neighbor and then ran off. My neighbor had to go through a set of rabies shots as a precaution.. not fun.
If you let your cat roam free, I find it hard to feel sorry for you when it ultimately meets its demise. It was only a matter of time.
Cats are a completely different species–clearly. Your neighbor should not have been petting a strange cat.
But, what’s odd is you have a problem when you hear about someone’s pet cat getting killed by someone else’s stray pet dog. I don’t hear too many stories about folks’ dogs getting killed by cats. I guess that explains the incongruous story about your neighbor.
Cats, like dogs and people, enjoy having their own space. I don’t hear a lot of complaints about squirrel poops.
People who let their dogs roam free have no control over their pets. On the other hand, can you imagine someone having the same seemingly necessary control over their cats?
Sounds like, a lot of folks on the Winonna Park listserv, you just plain don’t like cats. If so, just say, “Hey! strays are bad, bad, bad–oh, and, I hate cats.”
(Full disclosure: all my cats are the inside variety.)
No, I really do like cats. They are deliciious.
Just kidding!!!!!!! Really, I am kidding but I couldn’t resist a little snark….
I love cats. I had two of them until they passed on of old age sort of things a couple of years ago. In fact I have always had cats. I plan to get more cats when I have fewer kids to contend with. In fact, the reason I don’t like seeing cats left on their own outside with dogs/coyotes/crazy people/cars is because I do like them, and I’ve seen first hand what happens to cats that are left to roam outside.
I also understand that a dog definitely has more potential to do harm than a cat.
What I don’t like is the holier than thou attitude of cat owners…. they think that leash laws only apply to dogs, when in fact, they apply to cats too. I’d just like to see cat owners be as responsible as they expect dog owners to be.
I like that Decatur has so much wildlife- the number of chipmunks is astounding! Not to mention the hawks. About 5 years ago when I moved here- I saw a group of wild turkeys running across Ponce- no joke! Haven’t seen them again- but I know they are out there. Just wanted to say thanks to the group of local residents who started Southern Animal Rescue to help the stray animals.
Since the economy took a turn, the number of dogs running stray increased. I brought one nice lab mix home, took him to the Village Vets and then found him a home. He was easy to help because he had been someone’s dog. There was a sad case of a pit bull mix and a poodle running around- they were way too wild to catch and a pretty unlikely pair (they ran around everywhere together near Oakhurst/MAK). Saw them for a while and then they disappeared.
The SAR group has trapped and helped some injured dogs and also found litters in abandoned lots and arranged for homes for the puppies. They also rescued some sad inhumane cases- such as dogs chained up and abandoned. It amazes me how cruel people can be.
If this problem keeps growing, I’m hoping the city can help maybe formally through the fees from the dog registration (for the dogs parks) or through fundraising from residents for groups like this. I really appreciate what they are doing because the county animal control is overrun and the no-kill shelter groups are all full.
Regarding dogs with homes in Decatur – I’d give the city residents an A for picking up dog waste- it seems a lot better than other places I’ve lived/visited. Do you agree?
Decatur is a great dog town and this community group helping strays makes Decatur even cooler!
The turkeys were running away from Julie Shaffer of Emory.
I’ve seen all the postings, just not the pack of roaming strays threatening women and children.
According to this blog, there’s packs of children and stoller-pushing Moms threatening Decatur although I haven’t seen those either.