Ok, allegedly God created heaven and earth, but man domesticated the dog. So who's responsible for the dog's survival?

I say they set the mayor loose in the wilderness with nothing but his survival instinct. After all, God created heaven and earth and other such bulls**t reasoning.

Freeing animals with "pack instinct" to inevitably become wild hunting animals...animals which have been bred not to fear man...what could possibly go wrong?

To release dogs which will become feral is a crime.

To deliberately commit a crime while in office is Malfeasance.

It is also a crime to dump personal property on National Forest land. Dogs are considered "personal property".

"Intentional" dumping of personal property is also a crime.

He should be kicked out of office, and arrested.

I don't want a pet. I just don't have the time. I have three kids. I don't need to add to the work. However, these animals need a proper shelter. Setting them loose to "fend for themselves" is totally absurd. and anyone else who would do such a thing would be arrested for neglect.

Oh yeah, I'm sure all the dogs will survive just fine.

How costly could it have been to euthanize 10 dogs?

I could euthanize myself for under ten dollars.

This was wrong. But maybe, just maybe the mayor had his back against a wall. Watch the dogs suffer and die in an asphalt jungle or let them lose. I cannot judge which is worse. Obviously they need money for a proper shelter where the dogs can be taken care of and trained to live with humans. In spite of their "domestication" if these dogs were stray they may not be suited to live with humans, especially those with families or other pets.

I am in no way applauding this mayor's actions but I cannot condemn him either.

We humans have really made a mess of things, ya know?

True, but how many people were really aware of the situation? If the mayor had come forward with his plan, it's quite likely local animal lovers would've adopted most, if not all of those dogs. In the worst case, as teresag said, euthanize the dogs. Sure, it costs more than releasing them, but I don't think the cost is prohibitive and at least the animals won't have to suffer for it.

And finally, something that hasn't been mentionned: someone cut the lock on the old shelter, the old shelter was apparently deemed unsafe. They spent months in the parking lot. That should've been plenty of time to either fix up the old shelter or build a new one. What are they going to do with stray dogs now? Just let them stay where they are? Or are they going to take them to a neighbouring shelter? If it's the latter, why didn't they do that for those dogs he just released in the park?

Obviously this calls on the taxpayers to take away your gun rights and to build nets under high bridges!

That being said, perhaps we can just split the cost of a box of ammo, no reason to waste $10 in this economy.

While I like the idea of having dogs in the wild in America again, these dogs won't know what they are doing, and it probably is the wrong habitat for them.

Something about this whole situation just smells wrong to me. If the shelter was unsafe, why put the dogs in a parking lot? Why not find another facility to shelter them temporarily?

Turning domesticated dogs loose is cruel, they don't know how to fend for themselves. It would have been more humane to euthanize them. I hope the volunteers catch them all and they get adopted.

This mayor better come up with a solution. And fast. This problem will not go away. He's in denial and based on this judgment call, unfit to serve as mayor.

I agree suebe. He did not contact any rescue groups to see if they could take the dogs. The Humane Society offered to put the dogs on their website for exposure to adopters and rescues. He did not take their offer and by the time they physically went to try to help, he had already turned the dogs loose. Euthanization would have actually been much kinder for these dogs.

I received an email yesterday that some Humane groups were going to go into the National Forest and try to catch some of the dogs. I have not received an update yet. There was also going to be an investigation launched because what he did is illegal.

I will post if I do.

Here ya go . Dose: 1 ml per 10 pounds body weight. (Also works on dogs.)

I don't think that domestic animals will hunt for food. Even cats don't do it.
I worked in an adoption center a few years ago and a lady came in with her cat in critical condition because she didn't feed it the whole time she had it (she adopted it 3 months prior). She wanted it to be a barn cat and she thought that not feeding it would make it catch more mice/rats. No, it didn't. Needless to say, she was never allowed adopting cats from us.

Weird, I knew dogs were completly dependent, but I didn't think cats were. I always assumed that domesticated cats could live off of natural wildlife just fine..

Maybe he released them into the forest to protect them from the street sweepers.

There are weird times when cats will eat a bird that they catch, but not often. Cats kill for fun. My cat will catch a bird, try to bring it inside. When we don't let her, she kills it and then gets all sad, leaves it and goes on with her day. Then the dog tries to suck on it lol.
My old cat ate a bird once. I'm not sure why, she was fed lots. It might just be a "it's mine and you can't have it" kind of thing. Maybe she was mad and didn't want to leave us a present hehehe.

My cat is a champ at finding alternative food sources. When I was a starving college kid and couldn't afford cat food, I'd let him out the front door and he'd go across the street to the little old lady neighbor and gorge himself on whatever she fed him. He'd come back hours later smelling like old people and home cooking with half-mast contended eyes and a swollen gut.

I actually considered following him over there one day and scoring some table scraps for myself. That little s**t ate better than I did.

People are turning animals loose in the forest around my home. First, they are domesticated animals and usually don't do to well--those that do tend to form feral packs if they don't starve to death.

Next, setting animals loose poses problems for the indigenous wildlife. Not just predation but also disease--dogs can pass things to bears, raccoons, coyotes and other animals.

Finally, most of the other comments already covered the issue--he could have sought more creative solutions for the issue.

IMHO he was a poor example and legal action should be taken.