Andrea Rosebrock 
From Sunbear Squad, Inc. a non-profit humane organization that prepares you to proactively WATCH and LISTEN for evidence of animal cruelty, neglect, and abuse, and to immediately CALL your authorities for expert assistance. Please visit their website – learn, be proactive!
Be a Good Samaritan
Keep animal welfare in mind. Adopt a “watch and listen” mindset, so you can “call” the authorities sooner. Use your eyes and ears and call the authorities immediately if you suspect an animal welfare problem. Let them decide what to do, unless an immediate threat to life requires you to take action.
At this very moment animals are kept in cruel, neglectful environments in neighborhoods and rural areas across America. Often they are within sight or hearing range of neighbors. Yet they perish every day, because no one called the authorities, or worse, because authorities would not or could not act. Gene Fields, Sunbear’s defender and animal control officer, said that is the most frustrating part of his job: finding suffering pets near neighbors who didn’t call or take action. Read Gene’s action guidelines.
Pets from loving homes get into trouble, too. They might stray from the yard or become injured in traffic. They might have escaped while traveling—a frequent occurrence.
Your observations can make the difference between life and death. Here are some high-risk situations to watch for:
- Neighbors, when households move in or out, watch and listen for trapped pets in sheds, garages, homes, basements. This is a common occurrence! Sunbear was trapped for 6 weeks in a townhouse laundry room when his owner left town to start a new job.
- Walkers, runners, and delivery drivers, make a practice of observing the condition of pets as you go on your regular routes.
- Commuters and shoppers, keep an eye on roadsides, ditches and culverts. Pets that appear to be dead may not be, so if you can stop safely, do so and check for signs of life. Hit-and-run drivers speed away, condemning injured dogs and cats to suffer and die alone.
- Always be alert for intentional abuse of animals: beatings, shootings, cruel restraints, poisonings, and worse. Animal abuse is directly linked to violence against wives and children as well. You absolutely MUST call the authorities immediately.
- Spread the word. Send your humane society, animal shelter, law enforcement and animal welfare friends a link to this web site.
What stops some people from calling to report animal abuse or distress?
They may be busy, distracted, and unprepared, lacking phone numbers. They may not recognize the physical appearance of an emaciated, dehydrated, or sick animal. They might be unsure of what to do, or they fear getting involved. Personal safety may be a concern.
The Sunbear Squad has a purpose: to remove these concerns and prepare everyone to call immediately to save an animal’s life. We want everyone to be a better “Good Samaritan for Pets.” Always report animal abuse, neglect, and distress to your humane society, animal rescue, or law enforcement agency.
Animal welfare defenders, thank you for your every effort to report animal abuse, animal neglect, accidents, and distress. Encourage your friends and family to do the same! Send them a link to this web site: www.sunbearsquad.org
© 2006 The Sunbear Squad; All rights reserved.
I have one bit of advice to add to this post: if you see an injured/possibly dead animal and decide to check on it, please do so with caution! In that kind of situation, even the gentlest and most docile of domestic animals can lash out in fear and pain. If possible, call animal control to do this; in a lot of areas they are trained on how to approach and handle an injured pet (though they still sometimes get hurt).
Susan, that’s a wonderful piece of advice and so very true. Thanks for adding that. A hurt animal can be very dangerous even if it’s not normally.
I agree with Susan’s advice completely, but approaching with caution, does not necessarily mean not to approach at all. My husband scooped a pup off the highway and ran it to the vet. The pup had to spend the night at the vet, and the next day we picked it up, still no owner. We had left notes in all the mailboxes in the area. The second day we had her the owners called. They had been so frantic looking for their dog that they had not checked their mailbox. This was 2 days before Christmas and the pup belonged to a 9 yr old and an 11 yr old. It made their Christmas, and ours, too.
Gig, what a wonderful story and thank goodness it ended the way it did. I bet it did make their Christmas!
I guess the bottom line is just to be reasonable and cautious when it comes to an injured animal. If you approach a hurt animal and it shows signs of aggression, you know not to get too close. Sometimes you can mean the difference between life and death though, so think and act with heart and head.