A heartfelt letter from a friend......

I received an email a few hours ago pertaining to the (Dogs Howl Loudly as they Smell JPCA Fraud) blog. This came from a very old and close friend who is directly affected by this issue. Please take the time to read his testimonial and feel free to respond with your thoughts.

~P. Henry


When I returned home after serving in the Army and fighting in two major conflicts I noticed that I began feeling anxious and alone. After months of not knowing what was causing these feelings of distress and hopelessness I went to seek professional help. After a few weeks of speaking with a counselor he suggested that since I loved running in the park I should consider getting a running companion. I contacted a breeder and purchased what would become one the best friends I would ever know. My German Shepard, "Corporal" became my running partner, my friend, and my therapy. No matter how down I would feel there was something so special about that dog causing me to snap out of my melancholy. Corporal has since died but our bond shall never be broken. I have a new friend now named "Sergeant" and he has continued what Corporal had begun.

I hope that ringing endorsement is a comfort to those of us who keep dogs but sometimes wonder why. It's good to know that somewhere dogs remain absolutely, undeniably essential to man's work while we happily wander about with our furry friends, feeding them, walking them, scooping their droppings, showering them with affection, taking them to the vet at the first glimmer of trouble. We occasionally get nipped or barked at in return, but more frequently we are rewarded with a lick on the hand or a wagging tail or a rapt willingness to listen to our most banal statements, as if they are something profound.

Dogs and people, people and dogs: It's a love story so old no one knows how it started. "The human beings who participated in the earliest domestic relationships [with dogs] thousands of years ago are all dead," says zoo archaeologist Darcy F. Morey with refreshing candor. "They cannot tell us what was in their minds or what they sought to accomplish."

And since no one had yet begun to write things down, we are left to speculate, as did the British writer Rudyard Kipling in 1912 when he offered this theory in Just So Stories.

"Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog, and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, taste and try.’ Wild Dog gnawed the bone, and it was more delicious than anything he had ever tasted, and he said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.'

"The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will give you as many roast bones as you need.'"

That scenario (minus the talking dog, of course, of which there are none even today) would have played out about 14,000 years ago if you follow the archaeological trail to the origins of dogs, much further back if you favor DNA evidence suggesting dogs existed well before the earliest traces of their bones. Either way, this is clear: Dogs are not just our proverbial best friends in the animal world but probably our oldest. They evolved from wolves long ago, found a home alongside humans before history makes a record, and never left.

I am very concerned about the Juniper Civic Associations constant attacks on dog owners and their cherished four-legged friends. President Bob Holden does not own the park and does not speak for the majority of people who love and enjoy Juniper Park. His lack of compassion and understanding of the community is alarming. The Juniper Park Civic Association's frivolous lawsuit to enslave our dogs was an attack on our dog owner liberties as well as an infringement of our furry friends' right to run free.

It is well documented that individuals who show a propensity for a disdain for animals also exhibit antisocial behavior. I'm no psychologist, but Robert Holden definitely shows signs of mental instability. Someday, I would love to meet Holden in the park while my dog is playing and have him tell me to leash my dog. I would have to then bury him like a bone. If there is any animal that belongs on a leash it is JPCA President Robert Holden.

Give me my dog or give me death!

~Thomas Payne

Here are 2 stories regarding this issue,Queens Chronicle and also New York Tails.