Owner responds

Dear Editor,

I'm ashamed to say I didn't react to this sooner. However, I was ridiculed by several people for calling the paper in the first place regarding Dudley. They said "you're just going to open a can of worms."

Well, now those same people are saying "I told you so." So, regardless of them I will set the story straight.

First of all, I would like to address the "professional" trappers (probably the reason I am writing this in the first place). How dare you attack three young boys for doing something that was right?

Those boys had no idea that Dudley had been missing until Friday night Nov. 7, 2003. Their father had stopped by the house to drop off something for my husband.

I asked him if he had seen Dudley. I believe he went home and said something to the boys about it. They took it upon themselves to ask if they could go look in some traps that they had found in a previous outing.

Thus, they found Dudley. So back off on the kids. Now, for the fact that a dog can walk on three legs (which he does now) after the boys laid him down in the corn field (at approximately 6:30 p.m.) and put their coats over him to keep him warm, Dudley was close enough to home if he could of gotten up and walked home he would've.

The fact of the matter is he could not walk on three legs for two days after the incidence. Yes, we had to hold him up to go to the bathroom. After a day, he could stand on his own but did not feel comfortable enough to walk.

If you need more proof of what kind of shape he was in, I will be glad to ask the vet if he will get involved and respond to his findings.

However, I don't feel I should get anyone else involved in this. And I shouldn't have to. On Saturday Nov. 8, I left a message with the local paper to ask if they would do a story on trapping. I felt that with fur becoming more popular it would be a good time to address this.

All you "professional trappers" know this kind of stuff happens all the time. I thought if we could print the laws in the paper and show what might happen if you don't abide by the trapping laws; it would say what you may be faced with.

The paper got back to us on Dec. 8. ( I believe that was the date). We had no intention of prosecuting anyone. (Unfortunately we do not have a CSI crime lab set up in Red Willow County).

Even in the original story which was printed in the Dec. 11 paper, ( over a month after the incident; which was when the pictures were taken.) we did not mention; "anyone having information about this please call the local authorities," because we were told by our local county officials that our dogs were trespassing in the first place, and in the second place the only way we would know who this person was is by he/she fessing up to it.

It would be nice if this person would write an apology and/or pay the vet bills. A concerned anonymous caller called PETA. I called PETA on Monday and asked them to retract the reward money because I did not want this to go any farther. I can tell you the women was very surprised to hear this.

I asked her if the reward money could go to the boys that found him. Apparently their policy is the reward money is put up for a "person risking their life to give information."

I don't appreciate being called irresponsible and neglectful pet owners. We have 30 acres on the Republican River and because our dogs kind of lost track of where they were going (we tell them time after time to watch where they are going. I don't understand why they don't listen, let's see here how did Mr. Phillips put it; "duh").

In my opinion, if I wanted to keep our animals contained we would live in town with a big fenced yard. I feel it is my right to have my animals unconfined, as a property owner living in the country. I would like to ask the "professional trappers," why do you guys even bother trapping during hunting season?

Maybe, I should put my energy into getting the laws a little more clarified. And maybe you should put all the energy you put into this story into educating fellow want-to-be trappers. You should be ashamed of yourselves for the way you have conducted yourselves in this matter.

I can tell from my eyes your conduct does nothing for your image.

I will say a prayer for your thoughtlessness. Next time you should try to help instead of hinder.

After all this guys the one that's giving you a bad rap. If you would help more with this kind of problem maybe you would have less problems with animal rights activists.

Merry Christmas,

Marty Fielding

McCook