It is the responsibility of pet owners to ensure that their dogs are healthy and are regularly attended to and visit the vets regularly for check up.

Take Trooper, a 9 year old Komondor who lived in Randle, Washington as a sheep dog since he was a puppy. His owners never took him for any check up neither was he ever vaccinated. Two years ago, the sheep were sold and Trooper was left alone and was never attended to by his owners but only whistled to him to get attention to his food being out. I talked to the owner( the male owner passed away two years ago) a month ago and asked her if I could occasionally visit Trooper and brush him and keep him company for an hour to which she agreed. He appeared to be lonely and neglected.Two weeks ago, I noticed that his dew claw was inflamed and I informed the owner who brushed it off until I went back a couple of days later and sent her a text message at work informing her  that Trooper must visit the vet immediately as he did not seem his happy self and was limping. The vet removed the claw and found maggots which were all over Trooper’s body and he was not only in pain but had never visited the vet so his vaccinations had to be updated and he had to be brought indoors for healing. This was so stressful for Trooper and he was eventually euthanized on September 1 2019. Trooper gave his owners all he had for 9 solid years and protected his herd from coyotes only to be neglected and suffer many weeks of pain before death. 

A law should be enacted requiring all dog owners to register their dogs with the county and if their dogs are going to be outside dogs, to pay an annual inspection fee which would ensure that these outside dogs are up to date with vaccines and are treated humanely by their owners.