View Full Version : Abandoned Dogs
Rubberbandman and I pulled into Fontana early this week. There were two 'stray' dogs that had been reportedly left by hikers -(at least that was the word there from all I spoke to, including several employees). One of these dogs was ematiated, had very worn pads and nails that were frayed and sore, the dog also had a bad cough.
This is apparently an annual happening during thru hiker season......hikers get to the Smokies and can't take their dogs thru and have not prepared to spend the $$ to keep them in a kennel or make arrangements for them to be taken care of and are left behind.
Please reconsider taking a dog unless you have the resources to follow through with it's care! It is irresponsible to leave these animals behind and assume that others will feed them til you get back.
Thankfully there were other hikers :) there who took their 'turn' at feeding these dogs, one threw up outside our room and it was not a pretty site....tin foil, pieces of styrofoam and wood chips.
I wanted to put a big thank you out there to Max Power who is running the shuttle there at Fontana for hikers - a very cool guy there with his family - he got them dog food, and some medicine for the one with the cough - and found them homes with a some folks up in Davenport gap and delivered them on his own time and money. A trail angel for these strays for sure!
:banana
OK, I'll get down off my soapbox now....I usually don't post things like this, however I hope that some hikers will reconsider hiking with dogs without making the proper arrangements for their canine companions!
I must also say that I saw quite a few dogs with terrific owners who had their dogs leashed and well fed! This is not for you folks, but for those who have left their dogs behind......
jaywalke
04-13-2006, 09:53
That sort of thing makes me sick to my stomach.
People abandoning animals is one of the few things that could inspire me to hurt someone.
I'm going to go home and give my two former strays an extra treat.
Rain Man
04-13-2006, 10:22
... There were two 'stray' dogs that had been reportedly left by hikers ...
I wanted to put a big thank you out there to Max Power who is running the shuttle there at Fontana for hikers - a very cool guy there with his family - he got them dog food, and some medicine for the one with the cough - and found them homes with a some folks up in Davenport gap and delivered them on his own time and money. A trail angel for these strays for sure!....
First of all, sounds like Max Power is doing some great trail magic! Good for him!!!
Second, I think I'll go give my two adopted strays an extra treat too, like JayWalke.
Third, don't be toooo quick to blame thru-hikers. Sometimes they are "adopted" by stray dogs, who follow along to the next town, where they (the dogs) decide they'd like to flop down and stay. Truth be told, if it's not your dog to begin with, then are you really abandoning it or is it abandoning your hike? But if it's really thru-hikers abandoning their own dogs, then _I'll_ growl at them. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Rain:sunMan
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the goat
04-13-2006, 10:31
Third, don't be toooo quick to blame thru-hikers. Sometimes they are "adopted" by stray dogs, who follow along to the next town, where they (the dogs) decide they'd like to flop down and stay. Truth be told, if it's not your dog to begin with, then are you really abandoning it or is it abandoning your hike? But if it's really thru-hikers abandoning their own dogs, then _I'll_ growl at them. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Rain:sunMan
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excellent point, i've had at least a half dozen dogs follow me down south at different times, sometimes for days. usually they seem to be lost hunting dogs. and they are always sick, tired & malnurished, and thier tagging along usually ends near a town.
i can't imagine someone starting a thru with their dog and then saying "oh well, no dogs in the smokies, guess this is the end of the line for you, fido."
i suppose this could happen, but i think the former is more likely. but either way, it does suck.
Here in Virginia, and particularly in the stretch between about Reeds Gap and US60, hunters let their dogs roam the woods at will. Some even have radio collars. They may or may not ever reunite with their owners. The ones that stay in the woods can become part of a pack of wild dogs, and if they were never spayed or neutered before parting with their owners then they are cause of a population expolosion in the woods.
This is also an area where city folks abandon their dogs for a variety of reasons, none of them valid IMHO.
My great trail dawg Savannah was one such unfortunate canine. She was apparently abandoned or somehow separated from her owner during the winter of '97-'98, the year of the dangerous ice storm. In March '98, a BRP ranger found her, emaciated and sickly. He and his wife adopted her, adding to many other domestic and farm animals at their mountain home. She recovered, and in 2000 thanx to the kindness of Rusty (Hard Time Hollow) I wound up with her and she's been a great trail and home companion ever since.
During the two years in between tho she had quite the life, interacting with a horse who accidentally stepped on her (again, she recovered but not before getting the trail name "Noggin" due to the bump on her head) and being adopted by two '99 thru-hikers who took her from Montebello to Duncannon before deciding they didn't want her anymore (at least they arranged her return to Virginia).
Many hikers have gotten to know Noggin, now Savannah, and I have yet to meet one who didn't like her. We'll be hiking into TD together again this year.
Yep. Every time I go camping in the G.W. National Forest here in Virginia I run into at least 1 lost/stray hunting dog. Let me stress that ...EVERY time. Sometimes the owners come around looking for them...sometimes the poor emaciated pup is all alone.
What burns me is that even the ones that are collected by their owners are so skinny it looks like they aren't being fed.
I met these dogs early this week. The hikers coming through are taking good care of them....and Max is treating them like gold. They should be back up to weight in no time. My group alone fed them WELL.
It did make me sick to my stomach that to sweet and wonderfull dogs were just left. How can someone do that! I just don't know! I'm just happy that they are being adopted and cared for.....they're great dogs
i can't imagine someone starting a thru with their dog and then saying "oh well, no dogs in the smokies, guess this is the end of the line for you, fido."
i suppose this could happen, but i think the former is more likely. but either way, it does suck.
My second full-time job for the last few years (since I adopted my dogs from the local shelter) has been animal rescue. In fact, my wife got so involved that she quit her "corporate" job the second our rescue group decided to offer a paid Shelter Manager position.
So, I will say that when it comes to people and their responsibility to their dogs, NOTHING surprises me. We've "seen it all" - puppy litters in dumpsters, dogs abused to within an inch of their lives (cigarette burns/beatings/etc.), cat "hoarders" with sixty or more cats (none in great shape) and abandoned dogs everywhere we go.
Unfortunately, until people begin to look on their pets as living beings dependent on humans and not just another object to own and discard when they aren't what they wanted or are no longer cute and cuddly, there will always be strays wherever we roam. Not to mention the literally millions (estimated to be almost 10 million in 1997) of dogs/cats euthanized in US shelters each year.
Sorry to be such a downer but it can't hurt to make the statistics known so there are more people out there on the trail doing what Max Power did for the dog. Thanks for listening!
My experience is that a lot of dogs aren't dumped but get lost from their owner at parking lots and trail heads The dogs take off, the owner can't find them and gives them up for lost. If the dogs are lucky, they find a hiker in the woods who will help them.
Hunting dogs...well that's a sad story. Not all, but a lot of them live an exceptionally hard life. When people say they are/were "treated like a dog", they're talking about many hunting and/or working dogs. I'm not anti-hunting, far from it actually, it's just the way I've seen some folks operate.
Sadly, there are a lot of starving stray dogs wandering in the woods. Many are dumped at trailheads, many are just lost from their owners and others are hunting dogs who have gotten lost out of range or had their radio-collars removed.
I'm not a hunter, nor am I referring to the pro's and con's of using dogs to hunt with, but here is an issue that I have heard about and even seen: Occasionally, a hiker thinks that the radio collar on a hunting dog is a shock collar and wants to remove the collar to be nice. In NC, this action is not only unwise, but also illegal. If the collar is removed, the dog is more likely to be lost from his owner and end up starving. The well-intentioned action of removing the collar actually ends up harming the animal. Every hunting dog I've seen in the woods has had contact info on the collar, and the hunters generally consider their dogs very valuable and try hard to locate them.
Sadly, there are a lot of starving stray dogs wandering in the woods. Many are dumped at trailheads, many are just lost from their owners and others are hunting dogs who have gotten lost out of range or had their radio-collars removed.
I'm not a hunter, nor am I referring to the pro's and con's of using dogs to hunt with, but here is an issue that I have heard about and even seen: Occasionally, a hiker thinks that the radio collar on a hunting dog is a shock collar and wants to remove the collar to be nice. In NC, this action is not only unwise, but also illegal. If the collar is removed, the dog is more likely to be lost from his owner and end up starving. The well-intentioned action of removing the collar actually ends up harming the animal. Every hunting dog I've seen in the woods has had contact info on the collar, and the hunters generally consider their dogs very valuable and try hard to locate them.
That's a good point. City-raised hikers probably couldn't tell the difference between a hunter's radio collar and a shock-therapy corrective collar. Best policy would be: Unless the collar is obviously causing the dog some immediate misery--leave it alone.
I have run across quite a few hunting dogs down here in the southern apps. Most seemed a little underfed. I have been told that they are kept this way to improve their hunting desire. Thats a damn shame. I second the suggestion that people should leave the collars alone though. Despite the poor condition they seem to be in, having their owner find them is a better option than letting them run free. This is really a tough situation to witness and or hear about. Hikers who abandon dogs in the woods are not worthy to step foot out there in the first place. Hikers who lose pets in the woods need to re-evaluate their pet's abilities in the future. I would never take my pet along if I did not have confidence in my ability to recall her when off leash.
Max Power
06-27-2006, 18:08
This is my first time on this site since I left Florida. Let me clear some things up.
The dogs were not a certain hikers dog, I believe they followed hikers into the village, as do many.
Wolfpaw, Thelma, and Louise were the hikers who wanted me to take them to Davenport. They found the dogs in the village like many hikers and cared for them, but they really wanted them as their pets. When it came to the day to deliver them I could only find one dog. It seems someone else took it before I was able to get them both. After a week of watching them around the village the dog was taken the day I had to deliver. It was frustrating. Anyway Wolfpaw got the dog he wanted and Thelma and Louie did not, they were pretty bummed out.
I did take Kit (now going by Weeks) and Harley Hog Pit with me for the transport. They were a lot of help.
I did get paid by Wolfpaw to do this so I'm not that great of a human. It covered gas and helped pay for the car clean up from all the Salmon that spilled to keep the dog chilled out.
Kit and Harley and I got some sweet "off trail trail magic" at a Pizza Hut. We stopped on the way back right before they closed and they ended up giving us four or five free pizzas. It was great!
Thanks for the kind words.
The Solemates
06-27-2006, 18:35
where's ridge? come on..its a dog thread! hello...?
Ramble~On
06-27-2006, 19:42
:-? Dog Thread.....who said DOG thread......My Favorite :banana
Loose dogs in the woods are a free source of protein and really pep up those Lipton dinners. Their Canines make beautiful necklaces...and if they are large enough their hides make a cozy blanket.....smaller dog carcasses can be used as a pillow.
With a big enough stick you can get a dog to carry your pack for you...
Once you stop for the day the same dog can make a tasty meal if slow roasted.
:rolleyes: More Dog Threads PLEASE
"Notice of a Found Dog"
http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/founddog.txt
The more I am around people, the more I like my dogs!
Being a former breeder of Labs, and a former deputy, I have seen some pitiful sites when it comes to how people treat animals. and if they treat their animals this way, imagine how they treat their children!
SpritWind - I hope you were joking and even if you were, your sick and not funny.
I now have 5 dogs (1 stray that we kept) and about 12 cats. We love, feed, and take care of all of them. When ones dies or has to be put down for whatever reason, we greive tremendously.
When it comes to hunting dogs, they are not starved. Most dogs are way overfed and hunting dogs are just lean. Most dog-hunters I know have far too much invested in their animals to mistreat them or starve them.
Ramble~On
07-01-2006, 03:45
Semper Fi back at you and yes I was kidding and yes I am sick.
I won't make it a secret though that I have personal problems with "MOST" dogs that I have met on the trail and other trails and the vast majority of dog owners I have come across while hiking are in my opinion inconsiderate.
But this thread isn't about any of that...this thread is about another dog related issue. My above post was simply intended in humor in regards to many heated debates and arguements from both sides in past dog threads.
There are plenty of dog threads and new ones...such as this one continue to pop up...this one is specific to dogs being abandoned so I'll leave it at that. I am not "anti dog" or a "dog hater" but have opinions about dogs and their handlers and how they relate to the Appalachian Trail.