September 4, 2024 • 13 mins
You – yes, you! – can be a hero to neglected and abused animals. But there’s a right way to do it, and that does not involve sneaking onto a neighbor’s property and stealing their dog or cat. Learn how to do it real legal-like in this episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome into the short stuff. I'm Josh and
there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave. So this
is short stuff, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is all about if you go buy a house
and you see a dog that's being mistreated, whether or
not it's okay to bust into that yard or house
and take that dog.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, because of course you would think, well, yeah, there's
a dog suffering, or a cat suffering, or even a
pig or something suffering. Of course I should be able
to go rescue the thing. And the answer is no,
do not do that. But that doesn't mean you should
just leave that animal on its own. You should go
do something about it, and we're going to tell you
(00:43):
what to do.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's right. If you do that, you could get charged
with trespassing or theft. Of course, all fifty states have
obviously animal cruelty laws, so you do have some things
you can do, like well, well, we should talk about
cars first, because there is a bit of a loophole
(01:04):
if you see a dog like in a hot car
in a lot of states, I think thirty one states
say that's a crime. In fourteen states provide you civil
immunity for you to just brick that window open and
get that dog or cat out.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, which is pretty cool. Like if you see some
sort of animal who's whose life is in danger, can
suffer from serious injury in a hot or very cold car,
then you can, like you said, break the window. But
there are some criteria you have to meet in those
states where they do offer immunity. You have to believe
the animal is in immediate danger. Immediate danger, not like wow,
(01:42):
if that animal stays in there for three more hours,
it's gonna cook. That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, you have to try and find the owner, and
then you know, try the car door to make sure
it's locked.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
That's a big one, Like you have to determine that
there's no other way to free the animal, because wouldn't
you just have egg on your face if you smash
somebody's windshield in to unlock the door and found the
door was already unlocked.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, egg and maybe glass, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Another one is you want to use the minimum amount
of force necessary to get in the car, Like you
don't want to break your way in and then proceed
to go smash all the rest of the windows in
just because you know this is your one big chance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, and you can't go running at it going.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right, because in cartoon fashion, your baseball bets is gonna
bounce off of the car's window anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's right. And then let's say you do all this
stuff right, you bust that window open, you got that dog,
you've got to you know, you gotta call nine one
one of course in most states, and you should anyway,
But then you got to stay there and wait with
that animal until somebody of authority shows up.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Right, some states you have to call nine one one first,
Others you have to call after. They're like, just get
to the business of getting the animal out first, right,
that's right. Like you said that loophole only exists in
fourteen states, and at least one of them, Indiana, you're
still on the hook for half of the damage that
you caused to the vehicle. Seems unfair. Yeah, But even
(03:08):
if your state is not one of the fourteen, then
your city might be. I think. So this is a
rare short stuff that we got help with from Dave,
And he said that in Boise can you have a
legal immunity even though in the state of Idaho you don't.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, So check your local laws. If you feel like
you want to drive around and look for hot dogs with.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
A brick, right, well, eating a hot dog.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So again that is just cars. If you see an
animal at a house that's in danger, you feel like
it's in danger, called nine one one. If it's an emergency,
they'll send somebody out. They may route it to animal control.
The cops can enforce and handle animal cruelty in a
lot of places, but the ASPCA found and is a
(03:59):
little old, but in twenty ten, less than twenty percent
of police receive that kind of training and less than
half of them are even familiar with those laws. So
you'll probably get someone from like animal control sent out.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah. I looked for an updated study and the best
I could find was twenty fifteen, and it was supplemental
more than an update. But the stat that jumped out
to me is fifty percent of law enforcement officers who
were polled so that they encounter dog fighting in their
line of work. So they do need to have better
(04:33):
training and better awareness of animal cruelty laws. And I
think something like a good fifty of those same cops
that were polled said we want more training, more and
better training to deal with stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, should we take a break.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, let's take a break, all right. Definitely should drop
large hous of each other.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Sk if you should ask.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
What tough you should know? Okay, So if you see
an animal that is in distress or you think is
being neglected or abused or something, but their life isn't
an immediate danger as far as you can tell, there
are some other things you can do. I don't know
if we said if you call nine to one one
(05:29):
you want to report it as an emergency, and then
the dispatcher will probably be like, well, tell me a
little bit about it. And depending on whether it's an
emergency or not, they might send the cops. They might
send the animal control or animal shelter people. But no
matter where you live, your city or county is going
to have some division or department or agency that's in
(05:50):
charge of enforcing animal cruelty laws. Right. But it's not
necessarily the cops. It's not even necessarily a governmental agency.
In some places, it's a charitable organization who steps up
and is like, well, we'll handle this if nobody else is.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah. I think in thirty four states the Humane Society
has actual deputized animal control people like deputized by the
local police that essentially act as the police of this
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, and in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, they're also
authorized to carry guns. And they're also authorized to shoot
animal abusers on site. That's not true, but it should
be true.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
See, you couldn't tell from my whistle whether or not
I fell for that one. That's my new move.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oh it worked because it threw me for a loop.
I'm also really tired, and I saw Long Legs last night,
so I'm not quite myself. But we'll see if it
works again in the future.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What's Long Legs? I've heard of that? What is that? Dude?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It's a Perkins new movie. That's your black Coat's Daughter
and I am the pretty thing who lives in the house.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, which we disagreed very famously on Black Coat's Daughter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, so this is a lot more movie ish than
Black Coat's Daughter.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, I've heard it's good.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's very good, but it also like, seriously, I'm not
quite right today after having seen that movie. It's worth seeing, though,
I would say get to theaters too and see it
in theaters.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I watched the Brian DePalma classic blowout last night on Criterion.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's a good one.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's a good one, all right. So that's movie recommendations.
Back to animals. If you know, if this is kind
of thing that matters to you, then look up what
you've got going on in your town, find out who
the animal control agencies are. Uh, there's bound to be
a website where you can report something like this if
(07:54):
you don't want to just straight up call nine to
one one. Or maybe it's the kind of thing where
you're like, man, I got a bad feeling, something like
if you've see a dog on a chain or something
like that, you know, and it doesn't look like it's
necessarily dying or suffering, you can still file a complaint
because you shouldn't keep your dog on a chain in
the front yard or backyard or an yard or sideyard.
(08:15):
So fill out a complaint online and they will get
back to you right like you know they they'll they'll
do it.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Those don't get ignored even if they don't have some
sort of like here, write this in this field, and
write this in this field. There are some like details
that you want to include or some steps you want
to take. The first is you want to be as
detailed as possible about what you think is going on,
whether it's abuse or neglect or both or whatever, why
(08:44):
you think that. Yeah, and also you want to make
sure you have the right address. You don't want the
swat team showing up with the wrong address of somebody
who you think is neglecting an animal.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
That's right, especially in those three states that can shoot
you inside.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Sure, Another one is sure. Another one is the dates
and times where you witness the abuse.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, it's a good idea kind of just keep a
little log of what's going on and when it's happening.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, and there's a little just life advice. Anytime something
significant happens, so you're like, this might come back at
some point, it's good to note the time and date.
It just legitimizes whatever you're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, and you know, a lot of times these things
can be done anonymously. I mean, you may have to
submit your name and contact information. You maybe you can
make an anonymous tip, but they're also not going to
say like, hey, you're across the street neighbor said blank
blank blank.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Right, yeah that guy there, Yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
One looking on his curtains lines exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And then yeah, so you, but you may be called
to testify as a witness. That's the reason why you
might want to be included. And then there's a there's
a good workaround too if you're like I think something's
going on. I don't suspect that the dog's life is
an immediate danger, but I just want to know. I
want to make sure that the dog's okay. Most of
the time, you can call in what's called a wellness
(10:06):
check on an animal with the Humane Society. You can
do the same thing with humans too, but it can
do it with animals, and the Humane Society will send
out an officer who knows what they're doing and knows
what to look for and all the signs and how
to speak to people and find out if the dog
is actually being abused or neglected. And then they'll send
you a ribbon that you can wear around town that
(10:28):
just says hero.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Are we at the point where I can tell my
quick story of when I've done this?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah? Yeah, please.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So you haven't even heard this one, but quite a
few years ago we had we got a report. You know,
we have our finger on the pulse a little bit
of the local sort of animal rescue people around us,
which is you know where we live. It's a wonderful
team that are doing God's work in the neighborhoods that
surround me, and we know a lot of them. And
(10:57):
they're all like, that's how we got Charlie is through
one of these rescues, like trapping her in the woods
with some wonderful people. And I tell you what, though,
you blow that whistle and they're like, we are on it, man,
what do you need? So I got a report through
this network that there was a dog that had like
(11:18):
a family that moved and left this dog in the
backyard and it was emaciated, which is one of the
most reprehensible things I can think of, is just to
not even try and rehome your dog, but to just
say we're leaving the dog here. And it was on
our route in our neighborhood, on our dog walk, and
we went by a couple of times, saw this dog
in the backyard, and came back with some wire cutters
(11:40):
and cut a big hole in that chain link fence
and took this dog and found her a great home.
And I checked in a couple of times over the years,
and then realized about three or four months ago that
I hadn't in a long time and checked in with
this family, and that sweet old dog had just passed
away a few months earlier and had a great, great
(12:01):
life with this.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Fat That's awesome. That dog went on to be Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I never felt so good about doing something. And you
can look at my Instagram. I posted a the mom
of the family sent me a picture and this dog
is one of those that got a totally gray face
and head basically, and so I kind of told the
story and put up a little tribute picture on my
Instagram of when we got this dog and then the old,
(12:28):
sweet gray face. So that said Chuck the Podcaster, if
you want to check it out, I probably won't think
to pin it, but it's in there.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Very sweet. Man. I guess that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, but I also don't advise you to do stuff
like that. We just acted on instinct.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, so yeah, just go back and listen to what
we said and keep an eye out to help animals
that are in need of help. Okay, everybody do.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
As Chuck says, not as he did.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, well, of course, I mean short, stuff is out.
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome into the short stuff. I'm Josh and
there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave. So this
is short stuff, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is all about if you go buy a house
and you see a dog that's being mistreated, whether or
not it's okay to bust into that yard or house
and take that dog.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, because of course you would think, well, yeah, there's
a dog suffering, or a cat suffering, or even a
pig or something suffering. Of course I should be able
to go rescue the thing. And the answer is no,
do not do that. But that doesn't mean you should
just leave that animal on its own. You should go
do something about it, and we're going to tell you
(00:43):
what to do.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's right. If you do that, you could get charged
with trespassing or theft. Of course, all fifty states have
obviously animal cruelty laws, so you do have some things
you can do, like well, well, we should talk about
cars first, because there is a bit of a loophole
(01:04):
if you see a dog like in a hot car
in a lot of states, I think thirty one states
say that's a crime. In fourteen states provide you civil
immunity for you to just brick that window open and
get that dog or cat out.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, which is pretty cool. Like if you see some
sort of animal who's whose life is in danger, can
suffer from serious injury in a hot or very cold car,
then you can, like you said, break the window. But
there are some criteria you have to meet in those
states where they do offer immunity. You have to believe
the animal is in immediate danger. Immediate danger, not like wow,
(01:42):
if that animal stays in there for three more hours,
it's gonna cook. That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, you have to try and find the owner, and
then you know, try the car door to make sure
it's locked.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
That's a big one, Like you have to determine that
there's no other way to free the animal, because wouldn't
you just have egg on your face if you smash
somebody's windshield in to unlock the door and found the
door was already unlocked.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, egg and maybe glass, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Another one is you want to use the minimum amount
of force necessary to get in the car, Like you
don't want to break your way in and then proceed
to go smash all the rest of the windows in
just because you know this is your one big chance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, and you can't go running at it going.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right, because in cartoon fashion, your baseball bets is gonna
bounce off of the car's window anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's right. And then let's say you do all this
stuff right, you bust that window open, you got that dog,
you've got to you know, you gotta call nine one
one of course in most states, and you should anyway,
But then you got to stay there and wait with
that animal until somebody of authority shows up.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Right, some states you have to call nine one one first,
Others you have to call after. They're like, just get
to the business of getting the animal out first, right,
that's right. Like you said that loophole only exists in
fourteen states, and at least one of them, Indiana, you're
still on the hook for half of the damage that
you caused to the vehicle. Seems unfair. Yeah, But even
(03:08):
if your state is not one of the fourteen, then
your city might be. I think. So this is a
rare short stuff that we got help with from Dave,
And he said that in Boise can you have a
legal immunity even though in the state of Idaho you don't.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, So check your local laws. If you feel like
you want to drive around and look for hot dogs with.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
A brick, right, well, eating a hot dog.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So again that is just cars. If you see an
animal at a house that's in danger, you feel like
it's in danger, called nine one one. If it's an emergency,
they'll send somebody out. They may route it to animal control.
The cops can enforce and handle animal cruelty in a
lot of places, but the ASPCA found and is a
(03:59):
little old, but in twenty ten, less than twenty percent
of police receive that kind of training and less than
half of them are even familiar with those laws. So
you'll probably get someone from like animal control sent out.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah. I looked for an updated study and the best
I could find was twenty fifteen, and it was supplemental
more than an update. But the stat that jumped out
to me is fifty percent of law enforcement officers who
were polled so that they encounter dog fighting in their
line of work. So they do need to have better
(04:33):
training and better awareness of animal cruelty laws. And I
think something like a good fifty of those same cops
that were polled said we want more training, more and
better training to deal with stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, should we take a break.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, let's take a break, all right. Definitely should drop
large hous of each other.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Sk if you should ask.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
What tough you should know? Okay, So if you see
an animal that is in distress or you think is
being neglected or abused or something, but their life isn't
an immediate danger as far as you can tell, there
are some other things you can do. I don't know
if we said if you call nine to one one
(05:29):
you want to report it as an emergency, and then
the dispatcher will probably be like, well, tell me a
little bit about it. And depending on whether it's an
emergency or not, they might send the cops. They might
send the animal control or animal shelter people. But no
matter where you live, your city or county is going
to have some division or department or agency that's in
(05:50):
charge of enforcing animal cruelty laws. Right. But it's not
necessarily the cops. It's not even necessarily a governmental agency.
In some places, it's a charitable organization who steps up
and is like, well, we'll handle this if nobody else is.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah. I think in thirty four states the Humane Society
has actual deputized animal control people like deputized by the
local police that essentially act as the police of this
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, and in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, they're also
authorized to carry guns. And they're also authorized to shoot
animal abusers on site. That's not true, but it should
be true.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
See, you couldn't tell from my whistle whether or not
I fell for that one. That's my new move.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oh it worked because it threw me for a loop.
I'm also really tired, and I saw Long Legs last night,
so I'm not quite myself. But we'll see if it
works again in the future.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What's Long Legs? I've heard of that? What is that? Dude?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It's a Perkins new movie. That's your black Coat's Daughter
and I am the pretty thing who lives in the house.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, which we disagreed very famously on Black Coat's Daughter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, so this is a lot more movie ish than
Black Coat's Daughter.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, I've heard it's good.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's very good, but it also like, seriously, I'm not
quite right today after having seen that movie. It's worth seeing, though,
I would say get to theaters too and see it
in theaters.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I watched the Brian DePalma classic blowout last night on Criterion.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's a good one.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's a good one, all right. So that's movie recommendations.
Back to animals. If you know, if this is kind
of thing that matters to you, then look up what
you've got going on in your town, find out who
the animal control agencies are. Uh, there's bound to be
a website where you can report something like this if
(07:54):
you don't want to just straight up call nine to
one one. Or maybe it's the kind of thing where
you're like, man, I got a bad feeling, something like
if you've see a dog on a chain or something
like that, you know, and it doesn't look like it's
necessarily dying or suffering, you can still file a complaint
because you shouldn't keep your dog on a chain in
the front yard or backyard or an yard or sideyard.
(08:15):
So fill out a complaint online and they will get
back to you right like you know they they'll they'll
do it.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Those don't get ignored even if they don't have some
sort of like here, write this in this field, and
write this in this field. There are some like details
that you want to include or some steps you want
to take. The first is you want to be as
detailed as possible about what you think is going on,
whether it's abuse or neglect or both or whatever, why
(08:44):
you think that. Yeah, and also you want to make
sure you have the right address. You don't want the
swat team showing up with the wrong address of somebody
who you think is neglecting an animal.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
That's right, especially in those three states that can shoot
you inside.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Sure, Another one is sure. Another one is the dates
and times where you witness the abuse.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, it's a good idea kind of just keep a
little log of what's going on and when it's happening.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, and there's a little just life advice. Anytime something
significant happens, so you're like, this might come back at
some point, it's good to note the time and date.
It just legitimizes whatever you're saying.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, and you know, a lot of times these things
can be done anonymously. I mean, you may have to
submit your name and contact information. You maybe you can
make an anonymous tip, but they're also not going to
say like, hey, you're across the street neighbor said blank
blank blank.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Right, yeah that guy there, Yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
One looking on his curtains lines exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And then yeah, so you, but you may be called
to testify as a witness. That's the reason why you
might want to be included. And then there's a there's
a good workaround too if you're like I think something's
going on. I don't suspect that the dog's life is
an immediate danger, but I just want to know. I
want to make sure that the dog's okay. Most of
the time, you can call in what's called a wellness
(10:06):
check on an animal with the Humane Society. You can
do the same thing with humans too, but it can
do it with animals, and the Humane Society will send
out an officer who knows what they're doing and knows
what to look for and all the signs and how
to speak to people and find out if the dog
is actually being abused or neglected. And then they'll send
you a ribbon that you can wear around town that
(10:28):
just says hero.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Are we at the point where I can tell my
quick story of when I've done this?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah? Yeah, please.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So you haven't even heard this one, but quite a
few years ago we had we got a report. You know,
we have our finger on the pulse a little bit
of the local sort of animal rescue people around us,
which is you know where we live. It's a wonderful
team that are doing God's work in the neighborhoods that
surround me, and we know a lot of them. And
(10:57):
they're all like, that's how we got Charlie is through
one of these rescues, like trapping her in the woods
with some wonderful people. And I tell you what, though,
you blow that whistle and they're like, we are on it, man,
what do you need? So I got a report through
this network that there was a dog that had like
(11:18):
a family that moved and left this dog in the
backyard and it was emaciated, which is one of the
most reprehensible things I can think of, is just to
not even try and rehome your dog, but to just
say we're leaving the dog here. And it was on
our route in our neighborhood, on our dog walk, and
we went by a couple of times, saw this dog
in the backyard, and came back with some wire cutters
(11:40):
and cut a big hole in that chain link fence
and took this dog and found her a great home.
And I checked in a couple of times over the years,
and then realized about three or four months ago that
I hadn't in a long time and checked in with
this family, and that sweet old dog had just passed
away a few months earlier and had a great, great
(12:01):
life with this.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Fat That's awesome. That dog went on to be Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I never felt so good about doing something. And you
can look at my Instagram. I posted a the mom
of the family sent me a picture and this dog
is one of those that got a totally gray face
and head basically, and so I kind of told the
story and put up a little tribute picture on my
Instagram of when we got this dog and then the old,
(12:28):
sweet gray face. So that said Chuck the Podcaster, if
you want to check it out, I probably won't think
to pin it, but it's in there.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Very sweet. Man. I guess that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, but I also don't advise you to do stuff
like that. We just acted on instinct.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, so yeah, just go back and listen to what
we said and keep an eye out to help animals
that are in need of help. Okay, everybody do.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
As Chuck says, not as he did.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, well, of course, I mean short, stuff is out.
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Josh Clark
Chuck Bryant
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