Here’s an interesting article that has me in a quandry:
City Hounds the Homeless for Dog Licenses
(First of all, I’m going to try and ignore author Matt Smith’s passing reference to “surly bums” and focus on the greater picture here – the “homeless with pets” issue. BUT just for the record, I equate the word “bum” with a derogatory slur.)
I’ve blogged before about being homeless with a dog because, well, I was… and even with a job and income, I couldn’t keep it up long-term. My Neo Mastiff, Fezzik, is currently cared for by the wonderful Sage, who has been boarding him for several months. Even being in a better position than many homeless individuals, I was still only able to keep up care of a dog for two months while living at Wal-Mart. It is simply very, very difficult to maintain an animal when you’re homeless. Animals are expensive and time-consuming, and (surprise!) they will get sick at some point, even with the best of care. It’s just what animals do.
I do understand why many homeless people keep animals, however. Companionship and protection are two huge motivating factors. I occasionally had run-ins with some creepy people during the Wal-Mart days, and I felt a hell of a lot safer with 160 lbs. of muscle and teeth snoozing between my bed and the trailer door. Plus, as we all know – your dog is always happy to see you. Rarely a day goes by for a homeless individual in which he or she is not looked down upon as a second-class citizen. A dog doesn’t care about all that caste system crap, though. A dog just wants to be fed, watered, and petted… in exchange he’ll devote his last dying breath to you.
So yes, I see the attraction. And I even pulled it off for a while – Fezzik was licensed, had all his shots, was fed/watered/walked, and was the picture of health. However, I’ve also seen well-meaning homeless people with animals that were clearly suffering. Probably the worst case was a homeless regular that Matt and I saw outside of a local Starbucks, a few months ago. His Chow was matted and mangy, covered in scabs, losing hair in clumps, and could barely walk. I stooped to pet the dog and it gave my hand a few feeble licks, but you could tell that there wasn’t much energy left to speak of; it couldn’t have been too far from death. Matt had to console me because I wanted to just scoop the dog up and run away with it. It may be a hard life, but homeless people should not, as a general rule, drag their pets down that road with them. I won’t say there aren’t exceptions and extenuating circumstances, but they are rare.
However, there’s also a bigger implication to the San Francisco article. Slapping homeless individuals with tickets and fines for unlicensed dogs won’t solve the problem. It just adds another unmanageable financial burden on a human being who often doesn’t even know where his or her next meal will be coming from – how is such a person capable of purchasing a dog license, or paying accruing fines? If San Francisco wants to crack down, then they should look into having these animals adopted and rehomed, but nobody is helped by giving a homeless person just another nuisance citation. As the author points out, when tickets pile up, they can result in an arrest warrant, which can cause a homeless man or woman to lose all possessions and social services benefits. It simply accomplishes nothing.
So, my thoughts on this article are twofold:
1) Homeless people – don’t have pets. Really. Don’t. You’re probably not among the 1% of the dehoused population that can handle it.
2) San Francisco – quit looking for picky reasons to ticket homeless individuals. They need help, not another fine to mire them down.
NOT a shocker…coming from the same system of Government that proposes to fine people who can’t afford health insurance (and choose to not opt into *their* program). Shame.
Ticket people that don’t have money. Now there’s a novel approach to government. And here I thought San Fransisco was the bastion of defense for the downtrodden and in need of help. Apparently, I was wrong. Good thing I’ve only been there once.
Disagree with #1. IF you can manage to care for your animal companion, and I’ve seen animals with street people in far better condition than the people themselves, then by all means, keep it with you. I say this because, fundamentally, when you’ve lost all trust in human beings as many street people have, the love of an animal and it’s need for you, i.e., your love and care, helps you maintain your humanity.
Like I said, there are exceptions. But I don’t know that it’s all that common for a homeless person to be able to maintain an animal for a sustained period of time (indeed, even many people WITH homes are incapable of doing so).
I do agree with you that IF you are part of that small percentage that can care for an animal, take it to the vet when it’s sick, etc., then by all means enjoy the love and companionship that an animal provides.
There’s a homeless man near my office who has two dogs. He generally camps out in one of the bus shelters but I don’t think he has any real shelter. His dogs are his life and definitely his protection. They’re actually are in pretty good shape—they seem strong and healthy but I can’t help but feel bad for them. At one point I offered to help him out, but he wouldn’t accept money from me. Now when I buy food for my own dog I’ll pick up some extra for him and he appreciates that. I’ve also given him blankets for him and the dogs.
One solution would be for shelters to accept pets. This isn’t just an issue for the homeless, but for women and families fleeing bad domestic situations.
I definitely agree with you there – to my knowledge, there are only two homeless shelters in the U.S. that accept pets (one in California) and they are generally super-full. I think it would be fantastic for more shelters to offer this service!
Sometimes animals are all people have [ besides God I would hope] in their lives. They have been screwed by people so many different times and in every which way as well.
My two cents on SF – the city is a joke with their fines just like the feds who will fine you if you don’t buy into “their” health p[lan. You guys out there need to get some medically approved high potency weed .My other pennies worth is if you get a dog and you provide it maybe a week, months, or year longer then it might have in a dog pound that has got to be a bbonus cause if animals stay in shelters longer then a week they are usually euthanized. In my book – a moments worth of love , petting, and freedom is better then dying in a dog pound .
Thanks Marshall.
Well, first of all they should not be ticketed, but I’ve seen homeless people in Downtown San Diego who have pitbulls–no kidding, but I noticed that this mother daughter team might clandestinely sell pitbull pups; point i’m trying to make is that the homeless should have licenses for dogs, but the fees for such said licenses ought to be waived due to hardship and in fact some should be encouraged to give up their dogs to adoption services.
A dog is your friend, you don’t drag your friend down with you–it’s just not right, yet, in the meantime they ought to be encouraged to obtain licenses, however such said licenses ought to be free for them, maybe free mandatory vaccinations because it’s no fun when you get bitten and have no clue what’ going on.
OK – so the homeless lose everything and are living on the street or river bottom or whatever – what do they do with their animal? The rescue groups are full, the friends and family might not be able to help, what’s left? Hmmm, there is the shelter… so they’ve lost everything and now they might be sending their trusting friend to their death. Not a choice I would ever wish on my enemies (if I had any and I pray I don’t). And God bless these people, doing what they can to protect the ones that are completely dependent on them. I’ve been entrenched in animal rescue for 15 years-I’ve seen too many heartless “homed” people treat their animals like objects that should be discarded when inconvenient. Check out the euthanasia statistics for support. It is my goal to start doing what I can in my city to help these people and their furry companions. After 15 years I can now help people as well as animals.
I’m worried that the Pit bull requirements a specific kind of owner…these pet dogs, no matter how ‘supportive’ nevertheless have teeth, are nevertheless animals without moral ideas and when they DO bite, won’t allow go. As in all animals…some tend to be additional suseptable to instinctual behavior and time and time once again, this breed tends to try and do just that.