Dogs, Dogs Everywhere

Magistrate Lung was right about one thing...here in American Samoa, there are thousands of wild dogs. Although some can be pretty vicious, most are not. You pass them on the street like you would any other person. Some are loners and seem to run by themselves, but many others run in packs. You see alot of them hanging out under cars during the heat of the day--anything to get a bit of shade. Alot of them look pretty bad. Dirty, ribs showing through, patches of hair missing, scars on their sides from wounds they suffered at the hand (or paw) of another more dominant dog. And the sad part is that not all of them are wild. Many of them actually belong to someone here--someone that just doesn't take care of them.

A few of my friends have rescued various dogs off the street. Puppies really. One of the attorney's in my office, Tim, rescued a puppy by the name of Lou. He was incredibly skiddish around other people when Tim first brought him home, but he's being socialized and now that Tim's dog from back home has arrived (his name is Lexington and he's a boxer), Lou is doing much better. I'm actually thinking of adopting Lou, but we'll save that for another post.

The Harty's, who live across the street, just rescued a puppy last week that looked like he had a broken leg. They took him into their home for the Humane Society and tried to nurse him back to health. He was clearly malnourished, had worms, his ribs were showing through, and his stomach was swollen so big it looked like it would burst. They gave him medicine to try and de-worm him, but he wasn't pooping the worms out like he was supposed to. They gave him an IV, since he wasn't eating or drinking anything and even tried giving him an enima. But the only thing that came out were a few rocks. Apparently, when they are on the verge of starvation, the puppies will resort to eating rocks to get something in their bellies. Unfortunately, it was too late for this pup and he passed away a couple of days after they took him in.

If you want to read more about the animals on the island, check out the Humane Society's webpage at http://www.ashumanesociety.org/clients.htm. This link will also show you some photos of the dogs on the island.