Manchester Dogs’ Home fire: it can’t be just one stupid lad who’s to blame

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/12/manchester-dogs-home-fire-blame-adults

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As so often happens amid scenes of horror and cruelty, it is the acts of courage and compassion that squeeze the heart and stick in the throat.

Late on Thursday evening, residents in Harpurhey heard unusually loud and frantic barking begin to emanate from Manchester Dogs’ Home. The commotion was the first alarm of an arson attack which, over the next few hours, would entirely destroy the facility, killing at least 60 dogs. On hearing the panicked howls, local men Jason Dyer and Dean Rostock jumped over the security fence and ran into the blazing building, kicking open kennel doors, attaching leads to the dogs and bringing them out to safety. They secured the animals to a nearby fence, then returned into the fire to do it again. They had saved at least 20 dogs by the time firefighters arrived.

These two men’s bravery was unique, but the urge to help the rescued and injured dogs stretched far further. By midnight, Manchester Fire and Rescue Service had been inundated with offers to help, with people volunteering to go to the scene to help with the dogs or provide them with shelter overnight. (In the event, all 150 healthy dogs rescued from the fire were relocated to the charity’s sister facility in Cheshire.) A donations page for the home had brought in £100,000 by 1am and has now surpassed £500,000.

As the largest stray dog centre of its type outside the capital, MDH has long been a feature of Manchester life. Since opening in 1883, it has rehomed more than a million abandoned and stray pets. Spend some time in a Manchester park and it won’t be long before you meet a waggy-tailed alumni of Harpurhey. I wish I could paint you a picture of the facility as a canine arcadia of happy, healthy animals gambolling in the pastures of human generosity. In truth, as anyone who has ever visited will confirm, MDH was a rather depressing place, providing animal rescue on an industrial scale as demanded by the sheer, shocking volume of abandoned and neglected pets in a city like this.

One would walk past row after row of pens containing sad, scared and aggressive dogs. There would be indeterminate mongrels and mutts, lurchers, whippets and the occasional lupine Akita or ornamental lapdog, but the vast majority of cages were housing a seemingly endless parade of Staffies and other bull terriers, bred and bought as trophy dogs, guard dogs or weapons, then abandoned when the reality and discipline of walking and training begins to sink in or the first large vet bill is pending.

This morning on social media and, I am sure, in countless conversations in homes, workplaces and schools, vicious vengeance and eternal damnation is being sworn upon the single 15-year-old youth who was arrested for arson last night.

Assuming they have nabbed the right lad, we will probably never know what combination of idiocy, malice, mischief or mental maladjustment drove him to set the place on fire in the first place. The dumping of anger and opprobrium on one anonymous young head is understandable, but ultimately pointless. I hope we can between us reserve some of our rage, despair and horror for the countless individuals, not just in Manchester but on our own doorsteps, wherever that may be, who breed or buy dogs with ignorance, irresponsibility and inadequate commitment, then abandon them when the novelty or need is gone.

Without one stupid kid, 60 dogs would not have died at MDH last night. But without hundreds of stupid adults, those dogs would not have been there in the first place.

Nothing can bring back the dogs who have died needlessly, but the generosity of the public will doubtless help to rebuild and reopen MDH. We may end up with facilities that are more modern, more appropriate, more humane than before, which is a silver lining. The truly compassionate step forward, however, would not be to create a home for abandoned dogs with all mod cons; it would be to create a society where a home for abandoned dogs is not needed at all.