Freezing temperatures can be trouble for pets

This pit bull was put to sleep Tuesday afternoon causing anger and hurt feelings for the woman, right, who found the abandoned dog but could not care for him.  The stray dog situation in Lewis County continues to worsen and plummeting temperatures do not help these animals in their struggle to survive.

Someone abandoned the undernourished pit bull mix near her home in the Tablerock area of Lewis County and she could not care for him.

With two other dogs, one a pit bull she rescued and a on fixed income, the Lewis County woman hoped to find answers with the High Forest Humane Society, but there were none.

“The pit bull rescues are full,” Lisa Fountain of the High Forest Humane Society said Tuesday.  And both she and fellow Humane Society volunteer, Storm Greg, each have eight dogs they are trying to keep warm with temperatures predicted as low as six degrees Fahrenheit by Saturday night.  Daytime highs are predicted for the low 30s through Sunday.

Someone dropped off the dog and left her with the responsibility, Moore expressed, one minute with tears of anger another with tears of sorrow.

“Our humane society cannot take pit bulls,” Connie Scott of the Hohenwald Animal Hospital said, “because there is no outlet for them.

Abandoned animals are subjected to death by starvation, freezing, coyote attacks or vehicular, Michelle Armstrong of the humane society said.  “People drop them off in the woods thinking the animals, dogs or cats, can fend for themselves, but they cannot,” she continued.

Lewis County’s stray dog problem is managed on a shoe string budget.  The local humane society transports adoptable dogs to other parts of the country, as often as they can.  The volunteer group has worked to educate the public on spay/neuter options for three years.