FAMILY DOGS KILLED BY HUNTERS – JUSTICE DENIED - From The C.A.S.H.Courier, Spring 2009 Issue - Article Index

Iowa C.A.S.H. member, Merle Wilson, sent this letter to the editor of his local paper a month ago:

REMEMBERING HIGHWAY

Several years ago, my son got a yellow Labrador from some friends who were having to move and couldn’t take him with them. My son took him home to his three small boys who named him “Highway”. Highway quickly learned what time the school bus came, and every afternoon he would sit at the end of the drive and wait for the bus. Highway no longer sits waiting for the boys because he’s gone. Our family member has become a victim of a pack of vandals who call themselves “coyote hunters”.

My son was able to follow his tracks in the snow to where he was lured into a vehicle. We were told he was taken to a more remote area and shot and killed because the thugs couldn’t find anything else to kill that day. Indiscriminate killers like these people can roam anywhere in the state and break all the laws they want to without fear of prosecution. The DNR has allowed their law enforcement personnel for the entire state to fall to about 40 officers.

I didn’t send the letter because as Highway’s body had not been found, I was hoping he was still alive somewhere. Then a farmer I had talked to when I was looking for the dog called and said he found him in his field 4 miles from my son’s house. His killers had let him out of the pickup and let him run into the field, and then killed him.

Please publish the letter in the C.A.S.H. Courier to help focus attention on how sick these people are. These are the kinds of people that fund the IA DNR, so the DNR refuses to do anything to stop them: Although I knew the hunter, the local DNR officer refused to even take a report about the killing.

Then the Buchanan and Blackhawk County sheriffs refused to do anything about the hunter. I guess there is no justice in Iowa for these three little boys and their dog. This tells me that hunters can kill whatever they want to without any fear of law enforcement. What are honest, law-abiding people supposed to do to protect themselves? In Iowa, if you confront these hunters, the DNR or the sheriff will arrest you!

I ask that you send a letter to the DesMoines Register., P.O. Box 957, DesMoines, IA 50313. I also ask that you reprint the poem “Rainbow Bridge,” sent to me by the Waverly, IA Pet Rescue.

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

Poem by Paul C. Dahm

To see this beautiful poem set to music, visit:
http://www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.html

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The C.A.S.H. Courier

ARTICLE from the Spring 2009 Issue

Family Dogs Killed By Hunters – Justice Denied