Replying to a message of Fred Burgess to Matt Munson:   
      
    FB> On Dec 04, 2010 12:40am, MATT MUNSON wrote to ALL:   
      
    MM>> Hello everybody.   
      
    MM>> My county has dodgy administrators who run their local animal shelter   
    MM>> that is county owned so horrid, where they let their dogs get   
    MM>> frostbite and dehydrated. I bet they wouldnt treat their own dogs   
    MM>> that way. I would like to see the manager or executive who runs the   
    MM>> shelter be forced to buy some heat fans for the outdoor kennel so   
    MM>> instead of having it at 30-40 degrees farenhight, it might be like   
    MM>> 50 or 65 degrees farenheight with the heat fans. And maybe allow   
    MM>> volunteers to donate blankets for the dogs so they could keep warm   
    MM>> at least, and even if the volunteers donate detergent to wash the   
    MM>> blankets at least the county would not have to worry about frostbite   
    MM>> in the winter for the poor creatures. :(   
      
    MM>> Matt   
      
    MM>> ... "...[God] created lipstick and rollers for our hair." -Destinty's   
    MM>> Child --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32  * Origin: inlandutopia.dtdns.net -   
    MM>> inland utopia bbs (1:218/109)   
      
    FB> I second that emotion!  Where do you live so I can make some calls to   
    FB> them and yell at'em!!   My neighbor has a dog that is kept outside   
    FB> 24/7 and it howls and whines all night long.  And now that it's below   
    FB> freezing they don't have any heat out there for it, nor do they keep   
    FB> the water filled with fresh water (it's frozen) .. I just thank GOD   
    FB> that there is some snow on the ground for it to use as water.   
      
   Hmmm.  If the dog is kep outside the important thing is to keep it out of the   
   wind.   
   If the dog has a shelter - even if it doesn't have a door - it should be OK.    
   I have    
   five dogs that live outside in a fenced yard.  They have a building they can   
   get into   
   through an open 'doog door;' the building is only partly insulated but it IS   
   windproof   
   (concrete block).  Their water bucket is frozen solid - but I make sure they   
   have    
   water when I feed them every evening.  My neighbor up the street has a dog he   
   keeps   
   outside all year, if there's any insulation in that dog's shelter it's very   
   thin.  My caveat   
   to this is that my dogs are fairly good sized - the outside dogs range from 45   
   to 110    
   pounds.  What will REALLY hurt the animals is staying inside all night and   
   then outside   
   all day (when the outside temp is below about +50F (guessing at that, but +30F   
   for sure),   
   their bodies won't adapt to the cold.   
      
   35 years ago I was TDY to Biloxi and took my (one) cockapoo with me, she   
   weighed about   
   20 pounds.  I kept her in my pickup camper while I lived in the barracks at   
   Keesler AFB.   
   One of my classmates told me he heard my dog howling all night (she wasn't the   
   only one   
   living in the parking lot).  I rigged up a box to hold the top of my sleeping   
   bag open and put   
   her sleeping mat inside that, and she was fine after that.  Note that about   
   200 yards south   
   of the main gate of Keesler AFB is the Gulf of Mexico - and that January it   
   snowed there   
   (just a dusting, but it shut everything down).   
      
   All of that said, leaving a dog outside with no food, water or shelter is   
   animal abuse IMO.   
   As I noted, for medium and large dogs the important thing is to provide   
   shelter from the   
   wind; small dogs (less than about 35 lbs) probably can't handle staying   
   outside in temps below about +40F.  In areas where it gets below freezing over   
   night it helps a lot if the dog's shelter   
   is insulated from the ground, but otherwise shelter from the wind is what's   
   important.  Note   
   that in Alaska they build shelters out of ice/packed show (i.e. igloos) and   
   they're perfectly comfy inside.   
      
   --- FleetStreet 1.19+   
    * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)