© John WilcoxVOICE FOR DOGS: Jordan Star and Sen. Scott Brown, who is co-sponsoring the high school freshman’s bill to outlaw devocalization surgery for dogs, meet to discuss Logan’s Law, which is named after a debarked sheepdog adopted by Gayle and Tom
"To take a voice away from an animal is morally wrong," Star, 15, said of convenience devocalization, the removal of a pet's vocal cords so Fido and Fluffy are seen, not heard.
Star tackled the topic after encountering a dog who'd been debarked, then abandoned.
"It was just horrible," he said of the dog's struggle to get his attention. "It was just like a hoarse, wheezy cough. In a shelter, all they are is a mutilated animal, which makes them harder to adopt."
Under his proposed law, to which Democratic House Majority Whip Lida E. Harkins and Republican Sen. Scott P. Brown have signed on as sponsors, devocalization would be illegal in Massachusetts unless a veterinarian licensed in this state certified for a town clerk or, in Boston, the police commissioner, that the operation was a medical necessity.
Anyone breaking the law would face up to five years in state prison and a mental-health evaluation.
If enacted, it will be known as Logan's Law for a debarked Belgian sheepdog Gayle Fitzpatrick, founder of Friends of the Plymouth Pound, and her husband Tom adopted from Texas.
"The reaction of people whenever he was outside was, 'Does your dog have laryngitis?' I tried to explain he had no voice box and people were pretty horrified by that," Fitzpatrick said. "We always said to him, 'We hear you,' because he tried so hard to bark."
The MSPCA-Angell Animal Medical Center refuses to perform non-medical devocalization, saying, "The responsible owner is willing to socialize and train a pet that is vocalizing excessively."
Vera Wilkinson of The Cooperative Dog is a Chestnut Hill certified trainer, who heads the dog division of the International Association of Behavior Consultants.
"You have to get to the root of the problem. If the dog is barking, the dog is barking for a reason," Wilkinson said. "There's a lack of understanding between people and dogs that leads to conflict, and unfortunately the dog often pays the price."
Coming from the UK, I've never come across a dog that has been de-barked and I hope I never do; it's always seemed both bizarre and wrong that the practice is legal in the US. It's so cruel. I hope Star's campaign succeeds.