Those of you who read this blog regularly may remember that I work for a major Midwestern US electric utility. They made me so proud today, I had to share it with you!
As you might imagine, our meter readers and connect/disconnect people are very aware of the dogs on their routes because they have to decide who might bite and who will allow them into their yards to do work. As a company, we have noticed an increase the number of abandoned and neglected animals, so we are sending out the following safety bulletin to all of our field employees.
Stay safe, report abandoned and neglected animals
It’s a hard time for people and their pets. Home foreclosures are a growing problem across the country and in the states AEP serves. Often when residents are forced out of their homes they are simply leaving the family pet behind. Don’t hesitate to report suspected animal neglect – the compassionate caring of utility workers saves the lives of thousands of animals every year.
Here are some tips for safely identifying and reporting animals that appear to be abandoned or neglected:
• If you find an abused, neglected or abandoned animal, contact local law enforcement to refer you to the organization with jurisdiction for animal care and control in your area. Keep this number with you for future reference.
• Be prepared to provide the exact street address, nearest cross street and specific location of the animal, along with a description of the animal.
• Don’t give food or water to an underweight or starving animal – they may become very ill. Food and water need to be administered in a controlled setting by medical personnel.
Look for these warning signs:
• Extremely thin, starving animals
• Animals on property that appears to be vacant
• Tick or flea infestations
• No access to shelter, food and water
• Wounds on the body
• Patches of missing hair
• Limping
• Embedded collars/chains around the neck
• Severely matted fur
• Filthy environment/mud or fecal matter
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
Piter – Your English is just fine – it’s a very hard language to learn. I’m so glad you like the blog. Where are you from?
As far as why I started writing this blog: I love dogs and live with four of them, so when they were looking for a writer, I signed up right away!
Keep reading!
Hi ! ^_^
My name is Piter Kokoniz. oOnly want to tell, that your posts are really interesting
And want to ask you: what was the reasson for you to start this blog?
Sorry for my bad english:)
Thank you!
Your Piter
Raiul – You did just fine! English is a very hard language to learn, and you are picking it up very well. Thanks for the post!
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Some, but very few, of our meter readers carry pepper spray. Our preferred method is a small umbrella, called a Bite Terminator, which is opened in the dog’s face to distract him while the meter reader backs out of the yard. It has really cut down on our dog bites, and is a required piece of protective equipment for all of our field employees. We found that mace or pepper spray often just makes aggressive dogs even angrier, so we do not recommend its use. I agree with you that some employees got carried away, but we think we have found a more humane solution with the Bite Terminator, and we have gotten better safety results than we did with the spray.
Thanks for writing!
This comment is being posted in regard to the article concering field workers in positions of meter readers and connects/disconnets being compassionant about abandoned dogs and cats.
This comes to me as something extremely hard to believe. I worked as a meter reader and constantly heard guys laughing about how they maced a dog for no reason at all. It was not only common practice but also enjoyable for them. I eventually lost that job (and am quite happy i did) for losing it and taking on a group of 4 guys who were in the middle of telling one of their macing stories with physical action.
Maybe your readers come from another planet or maybe this message was sent to them and they simply laughed and pretended to be sincere in their promise to honestly help animals in need.
I actually witnessed a guy walk up to a fence where a medium sized dog was simply standing and wagging his tail, mace the dog. This was during my training period and when I mentioned it to the “management’ they dismissed it and began to explain to me, a person with 25 years of animal training and behavior experience that how I was not experienced enough to know when a dog should or should not be maced.
Obviously, I did not last long in that position and in the end they were served their Karmic debt by losing the contract with the electric company with which they worked for.
It did not make right all of the wrongs that were done to so many dogs but it at least got rid of that entire group of people and hopefully did bring more quality people into their positions.