Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.
Welcome to Anarchy101 Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers about anarchism, from anarchists.

Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.

Categories

+3 votes
very few people living in a very remote, rural area; everyone is far enough away from each other to have sufficient privacy. due to the particular location and land situation, there is essentially no authority around to worry about. folks do their thing, interacting when necessary/desired, mostly keeping to themselves.

one of the folks in this scenario is despised by almost everyone else. aside from a general lack of consideration for others in the area (a trait not unique to this individual), this person has a large number of wolf-dog hybrids. supposedly (some people claim this as fact, others have only heard it second/third hand) he breeds and raises them as guard/security dogs. in doing so, the person has one or more kennels, where most of the dogs are kept in what many assume to be very bad conditions (i myself only hear this second hand). what is undeniable is that he has a shitload of wolf-dogs, and they often make lots of noise (which may be a result of hunger - he is often hurting for money). he keeps 3 or 4 of these dogs as his companions, and they roam the area freely, often getting into other people's food and garbage (assumedly due to hunger). one person that lives somewhat close to the dog-man claim that he also abuses the dogs. note: dogs being hungry is not uncommon around here; a neighbor/friend often runs short of food (human and dog) by the end of the month, and i have had his dogs picking around my place.

now, a bit more background. this guy has been kicked out of most places he has lived, as a result of his wolf-dog doings. apparently, the way that has happened is by people killing all his dogs. folks out here are not really feeling that as an option. also, this guy is clearly unstable; sometimes he seems like a friendly dude just living his life out here. other times, he goes berzerk; throwing temper tantrums, making serious threats, etc. i personally have only seen the former, but i trust several of the folks that have had direct interactions with him where he was the latter. some have tried talking to him over the years about the dog situation, but apparently (i was never privy first hand to this) that triggers him and he goes off.

when i have asked the folks who swear he is abusive to the dogs why they don't do anything, they all say "he's crazy, i'd be worried about retaliation". while i am a lover of almost all non-human critters, i don't seem to feel as strongly as some about the situation; that is at least partly because i have no first-hand evidence of abuse, and the one person out here that claims to have seen it first hand talks a great deal of shit, so i don't necessarily take him at his word. (everybody has their own agenda, of course.) and nobody will go near his place, for fear of dog attack and/or him shooting first and asking questions later. i have asked about approaching him as a group, and basically forcing his hand (folks have been escorted out of the area at gunpoint before); they are all scared of what that might bring on later. to me, that just means don't let there be a later.

while a liberation action would be rather easy (he goes out almost every day), that would undoubtedly result in the death of all the dogs, as they would then be simply roaming the area scavenging for food, and surely getting shot. one person out here tried contacting a wolf rescue organization, but nothing ever happened. where we live, most folks would be afraid to come without the authorities, and the authorities basically avoid it.

i am the only person out here that has never had a bad run-in with the dude, and i don't have the desire to kill him. he has always been cool with me; though i fully believe he is unstable and probably capable of the abuse some accuse him of. and even if he were eliminated, there would still be the 25-40 wolf-dogs to deal with. nobody out here is going to call the cops, and though several folks would love to see him dead, none of them are apparently willing to do it.

so, with that as a basic description of the situation: what would you, as an anarchist, do?
by (13.4k points)
Is potential starvation or being shot while free worse than confinement and ongoing privation?

How to deal with neighbors is a minefield that I can't pretend to help with.

Hypothetically, in regards to the wolf dogs; Bolt cutters would be a suggestion, though not one that I would advise outside of the hypothetical, as it would clearly be against the law, and we don't want to break the law.

Maybe after the wolf-dogs were hypothetically free a group of neighbors who definitively had no forensic evidence related to the wolf-dog uncaging could talk to the dog-guy about his behavior and the resulting consequences?

I don't know... this seems too specific a situation to offer any helpful advice without seemingly implicating multiple parties, so I guess probably as an anarchist I would write a nasty letter and tape it to his door?
funky,

would you like answers based on what you said about your perspective - what you've witnessed and experienced first-hand and what others told you....or....

from one of your neighbor's perspective who had actually seen the other things you mentioned and who had the interactions with him they told you about?
ba@: i would prefer to hear from both perspectives, now that you mention it.

ingrate: your leading question is hugely relevant, and it has been mulled over quite a bit. and as i mentioned, a liberation action would be relatively easy. but that has so far been back-burnered, as there is little doubt about what that will lead to. leaving a letter is also an option that has been considered, and my guess is that will probably be the next step. well-placed signs and notes can work quite well out here.  

obviously nobody here should say anything that they are not comfortable saying, nobody should be implicated in anything. this is all just a hypothetical, real-life situation.

:-)

but if you do have some ideas about this, i am sure you can find a way to say it that does not implicate anyone.

thanks for your thoughts!
as a long time dog rescuer, the problem with freeing the dogs is not the short term (as has been implied a shorter, more willful life is what most of us promote), but that people who treat animals badly if deprived of those animals will just get more.

as someone who also has experience with intimate violence (which this could be seen as a form of) it is possible to deflate a scenario in the short term (confront him with numbers of people, approach him in some unknown variety of de-fusing ways), but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how this person (or someone who doesn't have great coping skills) will think about/imagine the situation once they are in a bad mood/drinking/whatever. much harder to plan for. (if someone reliable had consistent contact with him, then perhaps his temperature could be kept track of...)

there are possible therapeutic scenarios, for example people he likes and who like him could try to figure out what needs are met by these dogs (including money) and find other ways to get those needs met... but usually some or all of those criteria are impossible (affinity, time, patience, on-going willingness, etc).

 

i don't have an answer (hence this being a comment ;) ), but in my experience what normally happens is either nothing or that the person who is the most like this guy (closest in personality/life/etc) ends up doing something to/about him. of course, that is in a city, which is quite different from the scenario you're describing.
thanks, dot, i appreciate the thoughts. right on about animal "abusers" (for lack of a better term) just getting more - i have experience with that in another situation.

the other thing about a liberation event is that all those hungry wolf-dogs roaming the area will cause some significant impact to folks in the area with pets and livestock. some of them are neighbors and friends.

edited to add:  that is, before they all likely get shot.
If the hybrids are released, they'll most likely be shot and killed by farmers/people or die in some other manner. You can't exactly take them and bring them to an animal shelter, as the animal shelter most likely would kill them if they knew it was a hybrid. Hybrids generally won't be happy if they don't have a large area to roam about freely and their noises may have to do with that, but in my experience, they're noisier than a run of the mill domesticated dog and will howl on and on at like 3am. I know a guy that has a few of them that he took in, but they have a large area to roam about and get fed raw meat and bones, which your neighbor may not be able to provide for 20+ hybrids. Dog food doesn't cut it for their dietary needs.

Hybrids are actually not a good choice for a guard/security dog mainly because they're timid of humans like wolves are. They'll protect the alpha and give a warning howl when a human approaches. You can't really look at it as the hybrids as being similar to a domesticated dog because they really aren't. If this guy has 20+ of them and lets them roam about, I can see this upsetting people. Does the individual that has these hybrids have a large amount of land? Perhaps someone that he listens to could suggest he stops breeding them or maybe contacting a sanctuary in your area for wolfdogs? Other than that, I got nothing as I suck at dealing with neighbors.

edit: redundancy
this is a very interesting question, i didn't read it before cuz i confused it for a more confusing question someone asked a couple months ago.

i personally wouldn't get involved, vbut that doesn't mean that's the best course of action.

How exactly would one re-adjust a wolf dog to a more natural habitat without becoming farmer kill? i have a wonderful dog that loves to play outside and chase stuff but i've wondered if i could make her life more happy by reintroducing her to the wild...

Please log in or register to answer this question.

...