50th Anniversary Issue/Article

[Jennifer Francis]

Chrissy,
I manage a Manufactured Home Community and was shocked by the article in your 50th anniversary edition, regarding dog and cat control in Manufactured Housing Communities. I think this article shouldn't of been published! Animal lovers such as myself, take great offense when reading some of the inhumane ways people deal with such issues, and then you advertise them? I was very upset upon reading " 6 asprin in a hotdog guaranteed to kill a dog, don't know if it will work on cats or not" or how about "soaking a sponge in grease and feeding it to the dog"? Both of these methods were mentioned in this article. This article didnt give GOOD advice on what to do about this problem that is obviously nationwide, instead it gave SUGGESTIONS on how to KILL these animals! I was just shocked that you didnt address the real issue and instead gave people ideas they probably wouldnt of known until they read this article.
There are other methods to deal with these animals then to KILL them!
Do you think in your next issue we can address better ways to deal with these animals as opposed to killing them?


Jennifer Francis
Community Manager
Deerfield Estates

[Chrissy]

Please re-read this article in its entirety. These were not my ideas! In at least two separate places in that short article, it spcifically states that I am not personally promoting nor condoning any of these ideas as my own but am merely sharing what was entered on my website. I, too, am an animal lover and would not harm an animal. These were ideas shared by community managers who are not of the same cloth as you, I, and most others. Why did I submit it for publication? Because sometimes you need to shock people with reality. Sometimes people don't realize how the world views them until someone gets in their face and tells them. Some managers think there is nothing wrong with killing or maiming animals from their selfish viewpoint. Just as you are upset because you thought it was my ideas, so have others realized the value of that article. I have had phone calls and emails from others who wanted to let me know they never really thought about the harm they were doing when they dropped animals off out in the country, or did some of those other horrible things. More than one of them said they were going to call the Humane Society in the future. That was the purpose of the article! To get them to see themselves in print.

I have already written a handbook about enforcing Guidelines in ways that do not lead to eviction. At only $25, Get Tough, Get Creative was a best seller when it was first published, and continues to sell about 700 copies a year to community owners and managers.