Posted on 09/17/2012 6:42:28 PM PDT by sirchtruth
The Colorado climber criticized for abandoning his injured dog on a mountain has agreed to give up custody of the dog to one of its rescuers.
Anthony Ortolani, 29, originally said he wanted custody of his dog Missy when she was rescued by a team of hikers after surviving eight days on the mountain. Since then, Ortolani has received intense criticism and even death threats over his decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
Too bad asswipe, you gave her up when you left her to die on the mountain!
I agree, the least he could have done was put the poor dog out of it’s misery. One shot to the head and it’s done, rather than leaving it up there to starve to death which is quite cruel.
I’m sure the dog would be thrilled to see him again, that’s just how dogs are. But, she’s far better off with one of her rescuers than she would be with him. This is the right thing to do.
Lock your wife and the dog in the car trunk for an hour. After two hours open up the car trunk and see who’s glad to see you!
Make up your mind, one hour or two.
In all fairness, I think he thought rescuer's would go get her -
When they reached the bottom, Ortolani said he had a friend call the sheriff's office, but deputies said they couldn't send a rescue crew for a dog.
Best outcome. That idiot shouldn’t be near dogs or mountains. We should kick his ass out to Florida.
The whole story is played out on this thread on the 14ers forum.
http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36893&start=540
When I would hunt in remote areas with my dog (85 lb Lab), the thought of him getting hurt and being unable to walk out concerned me. I always carried a good first aid kit including super glue, vet-wrap, ace bandages and various bandaging supplies.
Additionally, the dog was trained to climb on my shoulders and tolerate a fireman’s carry.
I never had to tend to anything more than a sliced paw pad, but did use the kit on the trail once. I came on a rider and horse that was absolutely 3 legged lame. The rider couldn’t get the horse to take 2 steps due to the pain, and they were 8 miles from a trailhead.
As I watched the guy tend to his horse, I mentioned he should just pack the bottom of the hoof and wrap the whole thing in vetwrap. Got a real sarcastic “I would if I had any” answer from the rider. I reached into my pack and asked if he preferred black or red. I was real happy to help, and the guy very sheepishly thanked me profusely. The horse made it out fine with no further damage.
My current Lab is 110 pounds, and I am no longer in the shape I once was, so carrying him any distance is out. Of course this current dog is as gun shy as the day is long, so he isn’t likely to be on any extended hunts. I still keep a packed med kit for cuts and sprains.
What I don't get is, if there were two of them on the mountain, what kinda of dangerous situation would have prevented them from carrying the dog all the way down with them?
Good. Missy was dead in his mind so move on. Missy goes with one who had the live Missy and saved her from death.
I was just loving on my little Yorkie, Prissy, and if she weighed 100 lbs. I wouldn’t stop until I got her down that mountain.
She thinks and knows me and knows my habits and I know hers. She lies on my chair with me with her head across my ankles and can see out the front door from there and barks to tell me if she sees any movement out there. No one gets to the door without her first telling me something is moving toward the door. Would I leave this dog to die? Never as long as I was alive.
I think this outcome is a victory of collective thought over individualism, and is a travesty.
He had responsibility to care for his dog (including not expecting a dog to climb and hike in areas where it is physically unable to travel).
He abdicated his responsibility.
Best wishes to Missy’s new owners.
How so?
After reading all 544 posts while it was going on I would say because they were unprepared and should have turned back when she first hurt her paw early on. By the time she was completely lame it was to rough for them to pack her out.
Then the jerk made no effort to organize a search to go back and get her. He left that to others who did so.
If you read the whole thing you will have no sympathy for him at all.
Start at the beginning http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36893&start=540 and then get back to us.
If individualism means abandoning a pet to painfully die when you had a chance to rescue the animal yourself, I want no part of that!
Why did he have to leave the dog for 8 days? He could have gone and got her at some point!
Good !
That is a great ending to this story.
This guy’s attachment to the dog ended when he failed to try to rescue her.
Life teaches some really hard lessons. This is one of them. Hopefully he will learn.
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