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Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life.

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It is officially one week since our last transport and I am so proud to say neither Jessica,

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Becky, nor I have pulled any animals all week.

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The doghouse is completely empty.

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I'm actually going there tomorrow to spend all day deep cleaning it while peanut is at

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the vet getting spayed.

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But I'm actually going on a week long vacation in a few days and my mother, Becky, is leaving

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the same day as I am too to go on her own vacation.

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So we're all trying really hard not to pull anything because Jessica will be the one that

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has to take care of everyone that we already have in our foster care right now, plus anything

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we pull before then.

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Oh, and then Jessica leaves the day I get back from vacation to go on her own vacation.

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We are apparently taking full advantage of this five week break.

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But believe it or not, today's episode was actually requested by a fan.

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That is so weird to say.

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Lauren from Oregon found our podcast somehow and reached out to me on Instagram asking

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me to do an episode about the kinds of changes and reforms I think we need in the south.

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And when I first started thinking about what I was going to say, I was like, wow, I really,

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I really don't have much to say.

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And then I couldn't stop coming up with ideas.

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So I have two takes on this.

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One is what I would change if I could go back in time and make it where these laws were

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always in place, and two is what could actually realistically be done.

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So number one, obviously, I would love a law where you can't keep your animals outside.

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I fullheartedly believe all animals belong in the house.

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But imposing that law now would only hurt the rescue world.

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So many people are okay with keeping stray dogs and taking care of them because they

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just hang out in their carport or in their yard.

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If it became a law that they had to keep them inside, they would just take them to shelters

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and rescuers in the area or just dump them.

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For most people in the south, they don't love their dog.

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It's kind of like having a bird feeder in your yard.

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You put food out there for the birds.

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If they eat it, they eat it.

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If they eat from someone else's bird feeder, that's fine too.

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If you see the same bird for a week straight and then don't see it for a few days, you're

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not going to go looking for it.

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You're going to assume it flew off and it'll come back if it wants to.

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That's how the majority of people view dogs in the south.

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So imposing that law now would just cause mass euthanasia across the state because shelters

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and rescuers wouldn't be able to keep up.

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We say all the time, we can't rescue our way out of this problem.

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We're going to have to spay and neuter our way out.

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So I would love to see a law put into place to force people to spay and neuter their dogs.

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But again, if it's going to cost them money, they'll just surrender them or dump them somewhere.

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But let's say even if there was a grant and spay and neuter procedures could be done at

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no cost to the owners, one of the biggest hurdles isn't the cost.

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It's actually physically taking them.

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A lot of elderly people don't mind taking care of the dogs that wander up.

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And honestly, they would probably be okay with paying for the spay and neuter, but they

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can't physically pick up and load an 80 pound dog that's never been in a car before, never

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been on a leash and take it to the vet.

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Okay, so let's say they found someone that would take the dog to the vet for them because

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as rescuers, we would so much rather do that for you than have to re-home your dog.

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Even still, when that dog comes back later that day after having major surgery, they

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need a safe and dry place to heal for the next seven to 10 days before they go back

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and get their stitches taken out.

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The vast majority of people aren't able to provide that.

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I have heard countless times people talking about getting their dogs spayed, bringing

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it home and never seeing it again, or bringing it home and it getting run over the next day.

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These dogs come back still partially sedated, not fully awake yet, and they get attacked

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by coyotes or they get hit by cars or they just wander off and get lost.

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And we won't even get into all the infections because this episode would last for hours.

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So now this isn't just free spaying and neutering, this is free spaying and neutering, someone

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to pick up and drop off your dog, and a spot at the vet to board it for a week until it

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can be returned.

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The government is not going to pay for that when it's so cheap to just euthanize.

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So what can actually realistically be done?

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I don't know.

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I do think one very easy solution to a lot of problems is just actually enforcing the

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laws we already have.

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The law says that you have to provide food, water, and shelter to your animals.

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I do think we need to take it a step further and clarify the quality of those things.

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Right now you could have a bucket of lime green slimy water for your dog and that would

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count as water.

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I recently talked to one of my friends who's a former police officer and he was saying

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most of the time police officers won't pursue animal neglect charges because it's so much

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paperwork.

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It's easier to just say, will you give your animals to this rescue and we'll just drop

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everything?

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And I'm not sure what the answer to that is.

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I don't know if it's possible to hire animal rescuers who will fill out the paperwork

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for them because I know they'll do it for free and they'll absolutely get it done.

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But I don't know if the paperwork has to be filled out by a police officer and I don't

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know how tedious the paperwork process is either.

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Could that be simplified to make it more likely to be done?

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Or are they not doing it because they know the offender is just barely going to get a

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slap on the wrist and it's not even worth it?

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That's something that absolutely needs to change and it seems like it's starting to

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already.

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Once people start realizing that there's actually a real possibility of going to prison for

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mistreating their animals, I think that would create a huge change.

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Right now you pretty much know that nothing's going to happen to you.

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You might pay a small fine and you might have to give up your animals but that's all.

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There was actually an update on a case a few towns over because it was the two year anniversary

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last week.

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So two years ago there was a child under the age of 12 who purposely tied an electrical

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cord around a dog's neck and lit him on fire.

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Yeah, it burned almost every inch of his face.

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The dog, named Buddy, was a stray in the neighborhood that everyone just kind of left food out for

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and looked after.

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He didn't have a home.

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He was found by one of the neighbors when he was wandering dazed and in shock, she said,

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with his face still smoking.

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He was rushed to Mississippi State University's vet school where he spent the next 10 months

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undergoing numerous surgeries, procedures, and skin grafts.

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Buddy survived and was adopted by his lead veterinarian but because the child was under

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the age of 13, no charges could be pressed, despite it being a felony crime.

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What's quite possibly even more shocking is that even if he was old enough to be charged,

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this only carries a maximum of three years in prison.

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Three years knowingly torturing a living animal and you only get three years.

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This is a totally separate note, but I love true crime and there's something that they

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talk about in the true crime world called the McDonald Triad.

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It lists three signs that indicate whether someone will grow up to be a violent killer

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or even a serial killer.

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One is wetting the bed, two is setting fires, and three is animal abuse.

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I don't think those signs are taken seriously enough.

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Because this child was a minor, I don't know what happened to him, but I sincerely hope

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and pray that they take into account the fact that he has two of the three triad signs and

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they get him professional psychiatric help.

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This case actually brought to light how much is wrong with our legal system right now and

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they created Buddy's Law which requires any underage juvenile that abuses or tortures

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an animal be required to undergo a mental evaluation.

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Which is a great first step, but we do not need to stop there.

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I can't remember where I was going with all that.

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Oh, harsher punishments.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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If we neglect or abuse an animal, Mississippi should absolutely impose harsher consequences

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than what we have right now.

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Or even at the bare minimum, actually start enforcing the punishments that we have set

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in place right now.

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Going in a different direction though, I think something that would be very easy to implement

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but have a huge impact on the health of our rescue animals is requiring all animals to

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be up to date on vaccines and heartworm prevention.

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Again, if it's going to cost money, people aren't going to do it.

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So this would have to be something that the government does for free or partners with

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veterinarians to create some grants.

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It would be a huge help to rescuers and shelters if we knew the animals were already up to

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date on vaccines when we got them and it would drastically cut down the parvo cases we see

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which cost an absolute fortune to treat.

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We're even starting to see a rise in distemper cases after not having any cases for over

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30 years.

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If all of these animals were immune, we could possibly even eradicate some of these diseases.

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And heartworm treatment is quite possibly one of the most expensive expenses in the animal

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world.

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Is that right?

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Expensive expenses?

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I don't know, you know what I mean.

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It's so frustrating that heartworm prevention is so cheap, but people just refuse to give

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it to their dogs.

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The treatment can cost upwards of $1,000 depending on how big the dog is and how severe the worm

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load is.

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One of the main reasons adult dogs don't get accepted into rescues is because of their

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heartworm status.

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They can't afford to treat it.

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If we could find a way to eradicate that or even just minimize it, that would help shelters

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and rescues out in a huge way.

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In the perfect world, there are so many laws I would want to put into place.

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But I hope people up north realize it's not as easy as just our lawmakers don't care.

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Which they don't, but that's not the only problem.

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It's also that this is such a difficult situation to navigate because no one really cares about

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their dogs.

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And shelters and rescuers are already barely able to keep our heads above water now.

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If a new law was put into place, the dogs would be the ones to suffer from it.

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So what can you do from up north to help us?

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Foster, foster, foster.

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I say this all the time.

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We can only send as many animals as we have fosters for.

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If we have 1000 fosters for this next transport, you better believe there will be 1000 animals

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headed their way to you.

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Foster a dog, foster a puppy, tell your friends to foster, tell your neighbors to foster.

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If you can't foster, make a donation to a rescue to help cover boarding fees.

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We have to board so many animals that aren't safe where they are so that they'll still

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be here and alive when transport day comes.

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And even things as small as commenting on and sharing rescue posts on Facebook, they're

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such a huge help.

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Any rescue, not just mine.

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Even just commenting an emoji boosts the post so more people end up seeing it.

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These don't need to be long drawn, thought out comments, although I do love reading those.

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Just one word or one emoji helps more than people realize.

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Okay, I'm gonna get off my soapbox now.

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Sorry, Lauren from Oregon, if this wasn't what you had in mind.

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I wish it was as easy as just electing the right people to change the laws, but it's

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so much more difficult than that.

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Let me know if y'all have something you want to hear about next week.

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Thanks for listening.

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It's a rough life, but someone's gotta do it.