Cold dogs

Has it ever come to your attention that it is rarely people like me, who are ambivalent about canines and felines -- who, in fact, cross the road to avoid cats and dogs -- who are the ones who treat four-legged pets badly?

Check your local newspaper. Usually the people who are charged with cruelty to cats are people who have at least 87 of them in their house, and the dog torturers are usually suburban dog farmers.

No, I'm not a doggie person and never will be, but I detest indifference to pain, let alone cruelty, and was appalled last week to see a dog in the back of a ute (Americans, read 'pick-up truck'), shivering while its owner paid for his fuel at the petrol station counter.

It's Winter in Australia, and this was early in the morning. It was bloody cold.

Have you ever ridden in the back of a ute on a Winter's morning? I suppose not everybody has, and I suppose the young fella with the dog never has either. Not so many young people hitchhike these days. In the back of a ute on a cold morning, with the driver tearing down the highway at 100 kilometres per hour, the wind chill factor is Antarctic. If you've never accepted a ride from a ute driver who only has room for you on the tray, you've never experienced real cold.

I felt sorry for this naked pooch, but didn't get a chance to explain wind chill to the driver as he jumped into the cabin and tore down the Pacific Highway, with Rover in the back attached to a rail by a leash around his neck. At least if the driver should hit the brakes, it would put the poor dog out of his misery -- death by hanging.