ORIGINAL: c903

Some people become so obsessed with personal pursuits, they tend to lose all common sense and lose touch with reality …or have never had both oars in the water in the first place.

It is bad enough that for that sake of shooting a #$%& deer, there are hunters that will shoot a domestic dog that is simply reacting to an instinctive stimulus, and has not been taught otherwise by its owner. It is beyond the definition of sickening that a person would shoot their (own) dog that simply followed him to his (hunter) stand. The dog may have (just) wanted to be with his/her master.

How is it that the dog was loose to follow him to his stand? How is it that the dog was not trained not to follow when the dog should not? If the incident was the first time the dog followed him, then the person's act is even more disgusting. If not the first time, and/or the person knew that the dog might follow him but did nothing to prevent it, the person' s act of killing his dog is beyond comprehension and the appropriate words to describe this person and his actions do not yet exist.

Years ago, my brother and I accompanied an "obsessed" coon hunter on a hunt. Along with two trained and experienced coonhounds, he was taking a 6-month old coonhound on his first hunt. During the hunt, the young hound (obviously) did not know what to do or what he was supposed to do. The dog stayed at the owner's heels. This was infuriating the guy. He kept kicking the dog and throwing the dog up the trail. Eventually, the dog became very scared and was totally confused. My brother and I asked the guy to ease up on the young dog. He commenced to tell us, in so many words, to stay out of his business. A few minutes later, he became uncontrollably infuriated with the young dog and unloaded a .22 revolver into the dog's skull.

I wonder if this person who shot his own dog for following his (person) trail to his stand, and any other person that has the same size of brain, has children that have not been taught right from wrong. Would this/these imbecile(s) also kill their child if the child does something he or she did not know was wrong because the child had not been taught otherwise …or was allowed to run loose?

Unless the animal is unecessarily vicious, do not hold a domesticated animal responsible for it actions; hold the owner responsible.