Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10502460-20170813194316

This is what I'm planning on making the second installment of what I hope to turn into a micropasta series following the "letter to the editor" format. The first one is . I like this draft but I'm not as satisfied with it as I was with my first entry.

To the Editor:

The Sheriff’s Office is not doing enough about the pack of feral dogs that has been plaguing our county for the past several months. To review, this menace has so far claimed the lives of at least two people, caused multiple injuries, not to mention thousands of dollars in damages to property and livestock.

These dogs are vicious and need to be captured or killed forthwith. I have noticed the mangled carcasses of several deer in various places since reports of this pack’s activity started increasing. I have also noticed that the playgrounds in our local parks are always empty, and it’s not hard to imagine why.

As an aside, lest anyone think I have something against dogs in general, I’d like to mention that I own three dogs including a pitbull, and I donate regularly to the county no-kill dog and cat shelter. I do not experience a sadistic thrill in the idea of the mass slaughter of man’s best friend.

But dog owners especially should be concerned about these wild beasts. The pack is known to have killed at least four domestic dogs, and is suspected to have spread disease to several others. Not to mention that many of the locations where people used to like to walk their dogs are now barely safe for humans.

We’ve always had a small feral dog problem, thanks to years of Animal Control failing to deal with feral dog sightings and the Sheriff’s Office failing to enforce the ordinance against feeding them. But this pack seems to have come from someplace else. I have a contact in local conservation circles who believes this pack is connected to a larger pack that has existed and turned up in various spots in our state over the years since at least the 1980s. This pack has been associated with multiple fatalities. It is also rumored that mountain lions and even bears may have joined the pack, a behavior that is apparently rare but possible among apex predators, as there have been multiple reports of animals of greater size and different morphology and gait among the dogs and coyotes.

The authorities claim there is no breeding population of mountain lions in our state. They also claim that wolves have been extirpated from our state for decades. I beg to differ in at least the latter case. This pack, or part of it, has been active in the woods behind my property for several nights. I have definitely heard howling. I know what coyote pack howls sound like and this isn’t it. If these animals are hybridizing with wolves then we have an even bigger problem than we thought.

Enough is enough. We have to do something about this pack. If necessary, the Sheriff’s Office should deputize a group of armed citizens to hunt them down. I would be the first to volunteer.

-Anonymous

Editor’s Note: The text of this letter has been altered to remove the identify of the author’s source due to our no-attribution policy. This publication disclaims all responsibility for the scientific and historical claims made in this piece.

A townhall meeting has been scheduled at the county hall on November 9 to discuss the feral dog problem. 