How Do You Define Animal Abuse?

!±8± How Do You Define Animal Abuse?

To quote Mark Twain, "The more I know people, the more I love my dog." While I've met up with many truly good people in my three decades of animal rescue work, I've also come across some of the worst of the worst - among them, the ones who choose to profit off the misery of animals. Who comes to mind? Those who run puppy mills, of course, and those who enrich themselves through dog-fighting and dog racing, horse racing, rodeos and circuses. And right up there on the list - the manufacturers and purveyors of invisible fencing.

The horrors of invisible fencing are becoming legion. From pets who take the shock to leave the yard, but won't come back, to pets with probe burns right through the neck, to pets who are dinner for raccoons, coyotes, and other animals who don't happen to wear the torture collars. And the list goes on.

A woman once inquired about adopting a dog from us, and questioned our policy of not adopting to anyone with invisible fencing. She said she had chosen the product because she didn't want to block her wonderful view, and claimed it had been a godsend for her dog and her eight-year-old son. But when I asked how the boy had adjusted to wearing the collar, she was actually offended that I would think she would abuse her child in such a way. Need I say more?

Products collectively known as invisible fencing are deliberately priced below the cost of proper fencing for the very purpose of gaining market share. Therefore, they are particularly appealing to people who are required to fence their pets, but don't wish to spend a lot of money doing it. They are also appealing to a certain class of people that like the idea of having a fence that can't be seen, or won't block a view. And there are some communities with unfortunate covenants that ban proper fencing. In all cases, they are sold to people too lazy to research the product properly before they purchase it, and/or too indifferent to their pet's wellbeing to really care.

The entire basis of invisible fencing is pain. Shock your pet badly enough, often enough, and he won't go near the place/person that causes the pain. The idea that you train the pet to sound, as purveyors claim, is nonsense. What does a pet care about a sound? It's the imminent threat of pain that the sound represents that counts. So, you are not training your pet to sound, you are training him to pain. Some pets are smarter than others, and learn quickly to relate the sound to the pain, while others are not so smart. The reliability of this kind of training aside, this type of training has been documented to lead to aggressiveness, distrust, deep-seated fear responses, and behavioral problems. And it proves, in spades, the old adage that if you train a pet with pain, you'll teach him to fear you, but if you train a pet with kindness, you'll teach him to trust you.

Invisible fencing companies want to gloss over the actual measure of pain by trying to tell you that, for a variety of absurd reasons, a pet's throat isn't nearly as sensitive as a person's, so if you shriek when you put the collar around your wrist (purveyors won't let you put it around your neck) and shock yourself, oh well, it's not the same as the pain the pet is experiencing when he shrieks. Putting it politely - bull-feces. There's not a single reputable scientific study to back that up. Quite the opposite. If the collar didn't shock like hell, it wouldn't work.

There are a growing number of scientific and legal studies showing the dangers of invisible fencing. The behavioral problems of pets associated with invisible fencing are becoming huge emotional and legal liabilities. More and more reputable trainers and behaviorists are coming out against them. They are now banned in many enlightened countries around the world as constituting animal abuse. Many feel they will someday be banned in this country, too. It can't happen soon enough.

If you really think invisible fencing will keep your pet safe at home, think again. What's to stop an aggressive animal that does not wear a torture collar from coming onto your property and attacking a pet that has nowhere to run? How about a cougar? A coyote? A dog? A thief? Equally bad, if a pet sees something he wants on the other side of the fence, he'll take the shock to rush out and chase it. Guess what he won't do? He won't take the shock to come back. So he can end up dead in the road. Or he can wander away, looking for a better home, which he probably deserves.

In just the last year alone, we have, one way or another, been involved in no less than a dozen such horror stories:

Three dogs that took the shock to chase something outside their yards, and were run over in the road, two killed, one seriously maimed.

Three more that, thankfully, were found wandering, unwilling to return home.

One dog in her "safe at home" yard, that was mauled by coyotes, barely survived, lost an eye.

Another, killed and dragged off by a coyote in plain sight.

Two small dogs in their "safe at home" yards that were found dead.

Two designer dogs that simply disappeared out of their "safe at home" yards.

And one old dog that wandered with that hideous collar on for what our vet estimated had to have been months, looking, finally, for a safe place to just lie down and die.

Such was the experience of one small rescue organization, in one short year.

Another major problem that is glossed over or outright denied or blamed on someone else's product has to do with equipment failure. Prongs that get wet, corrode, penetrate the skin and cause serious infections or worse. Collars that are susceptible to damage from electrical storms, or malfunction for no discernible reason. Batteries that go dead and are not replaced, because most people who would purchase invisible fencing don't give a damn in the first place. We've seen it all. Not to mention that there is no real measure of just how much of a shock a pet is getting, because like people, all pets are different. An inexact science? Perhaps. More likely, no science at all. But what the hell - it's only a pet, right?

Are there breeders and pet stores and shelters out there that will take your money and give you a pet without caring if you have invisible fencing? Unfortunately, there are plenty of them. And if you're the type of person who already has such a product or would ever consider installing it, go to one of them to get your pet. Don't come to us.