Dumping stray animals-we need some sort of law

I have lived out here in the country for the majority of my life. For some reason it seems to be automatically assumed that we want everyone's unwanted animals. Last year, someone dropped off a cute little dog off on us which we wound up keeping. A week later, someone dropped yet another dog on us! I wound up keeping both of them naming the boy dog "Popeye" and the girl dog "Fluffy." Sadly Popeye died last year but we still have Fluffy. However this is the exception and not the rule when it comes to wanting an animal.

A couple of years ago, someone dropped a dog off on us that had the mange so bad and wouldn't eat. I called the local sheriff's department to ask if they would do something with this dog. They proceeded to tell me how there were no dog laws on the books, etc. and they couldn't do anything. I did manage finally to talk them into coming out and killing the dog due to the fact it was a public menace with having mange.

Recently I ran into a situation where that I had a nuisance dog. A dog started hanging around here and he growled at me once and growled at my kids twice. I called the sheriff's department again and got the same load of bologna as to how there were no dog laws on the book, etc. It just so happened this dog had tags on him and I found out he belonged to someone down the road from me. I called his owner (after I found out who he belonged to) and got him picked up.

Let me take out a moment and here and say just how sorry a level of service I received from Animal Medical Center in Kennett, Missouri. The dog tags had their phone number on it and I called them to find out who the dog belonged to. I was assured that I would be given a call back to be told who the dog belonged to. As of 3:30 PM the next day, I had received no call and the dog had growled at my kids again after they gotten off of the bus. I called them back and was given an attitude by the lady who answered the phone. She proceeded to tell me how that she didn't have all the time in the world to look through book upon book to find out whose dog was in my yard. At that point I told her that I would be calling the sheriff's department over this (thank goodness she didn't call my bluff, lol!), writing letters to the editors of local papers, and doing what I'm doing now-writing online articles about their lack of help. She assured me that as soon as she could find it, she would call me back. Ten minutes later she called me back just as nice as she could be with the name of the owner!!!!

In short, those of us in the country shouldn't have to suffer. The county should have some sort of program in place so that we don't have to suffer with unwanted animals that get dumped on us.