My new roommate mistreats her dog. What should I do?

Honestly, report her. I'm sorry, but when it comes to animal cruelty (which this is) then it's a no-brainer.

Talk to her first, see if she can understand the responsibilities of owning a dog and that she's not living up to it and treating it unfairly. If she cannot see that then, the dog needs to go to a rescue centre and be re-homed.

The lease issue makes things complicated, I'm sorry. Talk to her about how she thinks she should look after the dog vs how she is actually treating him. Could you take over with training him when she's at work?

Bottom line- the dog cannot and should not live like this.

 

then call animal control. that's obviously animal neglect. does she at least leave food and water in that room the poor pup is locked in?

 

Ehh, sticky situation. I'm not sure that it's bad enough to report it (I'm assuming she feeds it [not giving a dog treats is not "neglect"], and you said she washed it), though I could be wrong. And you need to have a place to live. So, could you take it out for her? Feed it when she forgets, etc? I know it might be annoying, but if you want to have a place to live and you don't want to live with a miserable dog, that might be a solution. Just say something along the lines of, "Oh she's so sweet, mind if I take her out for a bit? I was gonna go get the mail/buy milk/get some fresh air/wtv."

 

I'm not sure what to do other than call animal control or the cops, but this is an injustice I cannot accept. (I am a huge advocate of animal rights obviously) So all you can do other than calling animal control or the cops is to basically talk with her and say you're a bit worried about the dog and the poor animal's safety. If she refuses to listen, maybe you should try to find a new roommate and then report her to the authorities. Don't have to do it immediately if it comes down to that, but take the time to do so.

 

There's nothing wrong with locking the pup up. It's basically a form of crate training. Locking the pup up is a lot better than letting it romp the house unattended where it can chew on wires and get into all sorts of trouble. Hell, anytime the family is gone all day, the dog goes into the bathroom.

 

Sounds like you like like and care about the dog. I say offer to help take care of the dog. Kinda ducks that it is not your dog and you have to do the work, but on the flip side you get to spend her.

 

I love animals and I also understand your situation. We have a dog that isn't a shitzu, but when she was a puppy we had to keep her locked in the bathroom when we weren't home. We let her out when we were home though, so I'd say that it really depends on the amount of time that she isn't there to let him out. If she's there for a decent amount of time to let the little thing out then the puppy should be fine. I'd also recommend that if you are concerned then offer to help her take care of him. I'm sure she'd be more than willing to let you take some of the responsibility for the dog, and if you're still concerned when your lease ends then you do need to report her so she can't continue to mistreat the dog. Now I'm a HUGE animal lover, I've had all sorts of animals from turtles to parakeets and I see a bunch of people saying "Report her! Report her!" but from what I can tell this is not a god-awful situation. You have a few options of how to confront the problem and if I were you I would do them in this order:

First, offer to help her care for the dog. Make it clear you don't think she's incapable of taking care of it, just make it seem that you really love the little guy and want to help out of just loving him so much.

Second, if she refuses the offer of help then you should gently try to convince her to get rid of the dog and I'm sure that she will eventually decide it's for the best.

Third, if the situation is really that bad and the little guy is hurting and really needs a better home you need to report her and get him out of that situation.

It's as simple as those three things. You don't have to report her right now, just help her care for him until your lease is up and then you can report her if you still have concerns.

And don't let her spray him with axe. First off, it smells like desperate teenage boy and second, it could cause him skin irritation or other internal problems if he were to get any in his lungs or chew at his fur and ingest it.

 

I think it's great that you're going to offer to help train/take care of the dog! I hate when people treat animals horrible :/. Good luck