Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Letter To Editor - Blame Owners, Not Dogs

My letter is in response to a recent write-up in the Nevada County Picayune. A resident of Prescott has accused dogs that follow Mr. Hoover for two cats' deaths in her yard. Give me a break here. Are we just gonna start blaming every bird or squirrel, etc., that we find dead on the postman? Why does his name have to be brought up in this? Did she actually witness the cats being killed by those particular dogs. On one instance she obviously didn't, because she states that she returned home and found the cat dead. It could have been any dog in the community.

Mr. Hoover is just an innocent bystander in this. With as hard a job that he has to do he needs to feel some kind of protection. And if they did happen to kill them, so what? I'm kind of tired of having to swerve and miss them cats when they run out in front of me. Nobody seems to be concerned about cats killing our beautiful birds or urinating and scratching on our windows and painted surfaces of our cars.

Furthermore, I was perturbed when Mr. Howard Taylor mentioned pit bulls as being dangerous. Why does he have to mention the beloved pit bull? I own both a pit bull and a dachshund. You can ask anybody that has been around them and they will tell you that my dachshund will bite you three times quicker than my pit bull. If you don't believe me I would be thrilled to prove it to you. Pit bulls are not normally aggressive towards people and do make wonderful pets if trained and raised accordingly. Don't blame the dog, but the owner. Any dog that's worth anything will bite if their master is being threatened.

As far as some kind of animal control shelter coming to Prescott, the mayor was presented recently by mail by a nearby county with an offer to put up a shelter here. He refused to put up the funds, stating that Prescott didn't have a bad dog problem. So this pretty much sums it up. If you love your animal keep it inside. And if you want a shelter tell the mayor. But don't use another person as a scapegoat for the solution to the community's problems.

Charlene Clark

Prescott-Hope area