This morning’s blog is not going to be about cycling - it’s a look at animal abuse that is being overlooked by the local Humane Society in West Decatur, Pennsylvania. One of our blog readers saw my posting about helping Odessa Gunn with rescuing animals, so they wrote to me with pictures, including the one above. Other photos show empty food and wter dishes, and filthy conditions. I am asking anyone reading this blog to help if they can. Do you know anyone anywhere near West Decatur who will help rescue this poor dog? I have written to the SPCA there and never received any response at all. If I lived anywhere in PA, I’d go there and take the poor dog away, and to Hell with the crazy owner, the SPCA and the cops.....

Here are excerpts from the letter I received:
“ This dog is chained to a dog house 24/7. He is left without water. His chain doesn’t have a clip on it - it is wired in place. His owner works 12 days in a row and does not get home until 10 or 11P.M. He is not home on his days off. The dog does not have a cover over his door to keep out the weather. He is left out in the freezing cold. The dog lives in very unsanitary conditions, his food and water dishes are filthy. In the winter, if he has any water at all, it is frozen. Last winter he had no bedding in his pen. When it rains the dog is always soaked. His collar is encrusted with filth.”

The owner will not sell, nor give away the dog. Neighbors have tried to buy it from him to rescue it. One neighbor sneaks in during the day and gives the dog food and water, but is scared that the owner will catch them. The owner is obviously a disturbed person to keep a dog under these conditions and not give or sell it to someone who wants it . Yes, this has been reported to the West Decatur SPCA, but nothing has changed. The dog is still a prisoner on the chain, and has never know any freedom from the chain at all. It was given to the owner as a puppy and has been chained all its life....

Winters in Pennsylvania are fierce and cold, and you can tell by looking that this is just a cheap, plastic doghouse. The poor thing must suffer terribly during the heat and cold. If you know anyone who will take steps to help this poor creature, email me and I’ll give the address where the dog is located... Let’s find someone who will help this poor creature who has no voice and no choice....

The Clearfield County Humane Society has this on their website:

What is that Clearfield County SPCA?
It is a charitable organization with the express purposes being to promote and provide for the care, protection and humane treatment of animals.
How Do We Fulfill these purposes?
The Clearfield County SPCA operates an animal shelter and provides for qualified personnel to care for and protect animals. We also enforce the laws pertaining to animals as set forth in the Pennsylvania crime code.

On the Clearfield County SPCA website, under the section You, Your Pet and the Law - Pennsylvania State Law - Dog Law:
Pennsylvania State Law - Cruelty to Animals - PA Crimes Code Section 5511
Title 18-Section 5511 Pennsylvania Anti-Cruelty Law As of 2/96
“(c) Cruelty to animals. --A person commits a summary offense if he wantonly or cruelly ill-treats, overloads, beats, otherwise abuses any animal, or neglects any animal as to which he has a duty of care, whether belonging to himself or otherwise, or abandons any animal, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, drink, shelter or veterinary care, or access to clean and sanitary shelter which will protect the animal against inclement weather and preserve the animal's body heat and keep it dry. This subsection shall not apply to activity undertaken in normal agricultural operation. ”

Maybe we should all contact the West Decatur SPCA at 541 Graham Station Rd, Philipsburg, PA, 16866 Telephone: (814) 342-3810 and ask them to enforce the law of the State of Pennsylvania. I’ve already contacted them once. Or maybe that Humane Society has heard of the organization called Dogs Deserve Better.... See the Link..