Abuse and Neglect or Great Life?

This hound comes to my work every day, sometimes twice a day....

He is fat, happy and healthy... He stops on his way in each day to "visit" an then goes foraging in the landfill, I can't believe he does not get sick to be honest, he goes out sometimes with bags of rotten meat!! Other times fresh deer legs etc...

He apparently belongs to a farm up the road though no one seems to know for sure, and no one ever comes looking for him...

It's a debate amongst my peers if we should feel bad for him because he seems to have no one watching him or if he's got a great life, all kinds of freedom and does just as he pleases...

He sure looks happy, lol!

We sneak him in the trailer at the site somedays, he'll curl up at our feet until we figure we better move him along...

He's living the life as dogs have lived it since the dawn of time. I'm sure it qualifies as neglect even if he is having a great time and is violating a leash law - but the dog doesn't have a dictionary nor a code book. He's just doing what dogs do. I am sure my dogs would take notes from this dog if they could.

Kharma and Bimmer would be jealous.

Lucy's desperately trying to live that life, but my mean old fence and the stupid leash won't let her

Lol. Murphy is like that - it's essentially how I ended up with him since he was found as a stray. My mom calls him a free spirit, I call him a butt head.

Is it possible to think it's both neglect and a great life? I would never let my dog live like he does, I think that's irresponsible and neglectful, but he seems to be living the life of freedom, and look at that face! If that's not happy I don't know what is.

Oh I'm certain he's happy. I don't think you should feel bad for him, but I think you should worry about him. He's happy and appears to be comfortable and healthy. The bad part about living a life like that is how easily something bad can happen, like getting hit by a car or falling through a frozen lake and how easy it is to catch something like heartworm. So it's not a bad life but could quickly turn into one.

It is pending abuse because the day will come when the dog eats the wrong thing. What happened to Neccy from eating all those cooked bones was horrible. Even tho "she's been eating them all her life". I saw the dog pass what looked very much like lining to her intestine I don't know what that was. Only that she coudln't hardly swallow water her throat was so scratched and she was scratched all the way to her pink and swollen rectum. IF this dog doesn't get hit, he is obviously car smart at this point, he will have that to look forward to.Sighs. THat or poisoned meat from anarobic break down like that pizza Mary found and ate once. It gave her a nerutoxin, I thought she was dying. We were only very lucky that she vomited as much as she did as fast as she did. Being put into that kind of danger is never a great life. It's the ability to die a wild death, and it's pretty much always tragic going that way. That's my opinion of it.

These are my sentiments exactly.

My dad's friend, who owns a farm, used to have a Beagle that he found on the road one morning on his way into work. He took her home and allowed her to basically go wherever she wanted, which was mainly to the neighbors (who loved her and would feed her) and then she would take off to the swamp to explore. It wasn't unusual to see the white tip of her tail trailing the fence line two fields over. She was a well taken care of dog, fed and vetted regularly, but I would always worry about her safety when we went to visit. On the other hand, I think she would have been miserable if she was cooped up at home. She lived to be 16 or 17 (the vet estimated she was 3 or 4 when they found her) and lived this way for the 13 years they had her.

The thing I would be worried about is how exactly he gets there. I know a rural road isn't necessarily a major highway traffic wise but I've seen some cars basically fly down country roads and one day it could just be a series of unfortunate events.

It's a life of many farm dogs. Many people wouldn't bat an eye if he was of certain breeds. It's quite common around here. (Well, not the whole eating from the dump thing)

ETA: I'd never do it, cause well, if I'm going to have a dog it's because I want it with me

I think it's both abuse and neglect from the human standpoint, although it is temporarily a "great life" for the dog.

Letting a dog roam around is just asking for danger... they could get hit by a car, they could eat something at the dump that is potentially harmful (rotted food, items that can cause blockages), they could be tortured/harrassed by children, they could be harmed by another animal, etc, etc.

Of course the dog is having a great time- most dogs would love to roam around all day and do whatever they please. Any of my dogs would enjoy roaming around outside while treating themselves to whatever nomz they wanted at the dump.

Even though it is a fun situation for the dog, I'd consider it abuse and neglect.

A bit of both. I bet he loves it and is happy with the freedom, but there's no denying it's dangerous. He may never have anything bad happen to him because of his roaming, but the possibility is too real for me to ever allow my dogs (or cats) that sort of freedom.

I am always worried one day he'll never come back and I won't know what happened to him... I am rather fond of him!

I mentioned that I felt like taking him home one day and was attacked for being "cruel" because he'd be fenced or stuck inside... He LOVES coming in the trailer and laying at our feet, ESP in the winter... I don't think he'd be terribly unhappy though I don't doubt he'd miss the free roaming...

I am soooo tempted to see if I can find out whose he is and ask for him, or at least make sure he is being checked on, for all I know he may go in the house every night (Though I doubt it, he can't often smell that nice)

If it were not for getting into Landfill goodies it would not be near so worrisome, not too many chances out here to get intentionally abused, very light traffic road (dead ends up the way he trotts down from just a few farms)

It's neglect. I'm sorry, we don't let children run around naked, eating candy, and dodging traffic do we? Just because the dog WANTS to do it, doesn't mean it's the right thing to allow the dog to do. It's the owner's responsibility to keep his dog safe from the dangers of the world and they arn't following through with that responsibility. The dog doesn't know that cars can kill him, he doesn't know that eaten anti-freeze at the dump will kill him, he doesn't know these things and the owner shouldn't put him in the situation where those things will kill him.

I would attach a note to him, like via some cheap collar saying something like "If this is your dog, please call (xxx)xxx-xxxx, he is a friendly dog and we are quite fond of him, I'd like to have your number in case something happens to him as he is out and about and we need to contact you"

I wouldn't say he is being ABUSED, as that would be more of using direct force to hurt the dog.
but neglect? Yea. There are laws for a reason and part of being a dog owner IMO is keeping your dog safe.. letting your dog roam around, regardless of wether or not he likes it, just isn't a good idea.

I mean, there are exceptions.. I have seen some TINY town dogs who wander around but kind of an "everyone in the town knows who the dog is, we have no cars etc.." kind of thing, so sure.

but for this dog to be walking around roads and in populated areas where nobody knows where he came from/who the dog is IMO is neglectful

I 100% agree. Yeah dogs have been doing it since the dawn of time but think of all the terrible stuff that goes into a landfill. I would not let my dog near one and to think this dog just goes free roaming and eats whatever he wants from one is really frightening.

The "what-if"'s are a bit terrifying, but that is about the happiest beagle I've seen lol

He is happy for sure, he is the most friendly easy going happy go lucky dog I know!