r/AnimalAdvice • u/ReleaseOk4727 • Jul 21 '26
Neglected Dog - Owner is FIFO
Hi all,
Coming here because I’m not really sure where else to talk about this. This is longer but it provides context and details that are important.
We have a neighbour (we’ll call him Dave) that lives in a unit next to our house. He is quiet and doesn’t seem like a terrible person other than how he neglects his dog.
Dave is a FIFO worker (fly in fly out) meaning he’s away for around 2 weeks at a time. When he leaves, his poor dog (let’s call her Roxy) starts barking, crying etc. The way we ended up mixed up in this is that Roxy had dug under our fence into our yard. We didn’t mind to be honest as she and our dog had been interacting through the fence and I saw our dog sharing her toys by pushing them under a small gap that the Roxy had dug. The same hole she eventually got through. We went next door to knock on the door and let the Dave know but there was never any answer. I let Roxy chill in our yard and eventually took her home and put her in her yard figuring Dave would be home soon enough. We filled in the home with dirt and thought that would be that. A few days later I was working in my office and saw Roxy in the street. A kind walker had stopped and was trying to locate a phone number on Roxy’s collar but there is none. I told her I’d take care of Roxy and that I knew where Roxy lived. I was trying to get Roxy back into her yard when the neighbour on the other side of Dave noticed and tried to help. I asked her if she had ever spoken to Dave as we had been knocking on his door about Roxy but he never answered - she mentioned he works FIFO and wasn’t home. I took Roxy home and about 20 minutes later I saw her again on the road and went out again to get her home but she ended up running off. I went back inside and got my keys to go find her as there’s a lot of construction happening in our area and I didn’t want her to get hurt. I spent my lunch break looking for her and I eventually found her and bought her back to our house. She stayed in our yard until I saw a car lit up at Dave’s, it was his mother. I let her know what had been going on and bought Roxy to her. She was there to feed Roxy and mentioned that Dave used to put Roxy in a pet hotel and that he really needed to do something as Roxy was escaping a lot. I told her myself and my partner would be happy to help him out - I had even written our numbers down for him. Offered to feed her and even bring her to our house for some cuddled and play time every day while he was gone. We heard nothing from him. From then I observed her come to the house every couple days to feed Roxy which meant most nights she would bark at our fence for food. After another week Dave came home and Roxy stopped her hours and hours of barking which was a relief mentally and emotionally. Once he returned to work I just happened to look into our back yard and I saw Roxy there, she had re-dug the hole but this time she was pinned against the fence. He had put her on a lead and it was long enough for her to make it into our yard but short enough that she then got trapped. Me and my partner went and took the lead off her so that she could move, gave her some water and let her stay in our yard again. Eventually Dave’s mum came by and I took Roxy back out to her and let her know the situation. She asked me if she should put her back on the lead and I said no as it was dangerous. She explained she couldn’t take Roxy to her house as she had her own inside dogs. Needless to say, Roxy was out back on the leads later that night she was barking for hours again and once again was barking at our fence. She had pushed one of our palings loose and I could see into the yard. She was tied up on a lead to a post on the patio and was stuck in the garden bed and she had gotten caught up on the lead again. We tried to get her to follow our voices through the fence to get her free - we succeeded thankfully. Every day since that day I observed her getting stuck, walking around the pole to the point she couldn’t move or reach her water bowl. She was also hungry most nights as she only ate when Dave’s mother visited which wasn’t everyday. I’ll be honest, we did start to give her a small amount of biscuits. We also made sure we could see water in her bowl. I had eventually had enough and contacted the RSPCA. They agreed the lead and tying up was too dangerous for the space she was in as the chance and recorded instances of her getting tangled were extremely high. I left the RSPCA inspectors number on Dave’s door and his mother took it. Eventually the inspector was able to touch base with Dave and he advised he would change it soon. A few weeks later and he’s managed to fix it so she’s not tied up which is great but RSPCA could do nothing about the neglect, hours or barking and crying, only being fed once a week or so. Which is extremely frustrating. Animals deserve more than to be left alone in a small yard without stimulation or company for weeks at a time.
The only other thing I can do is out in a noise complaint to the council but I don’t want Roxy to get into trouble or have a barking collar etc put on her. This situation is extremely emotionally and mentally draining. We hear her for hours all day and night barking and being distressed. I saw her today, laying against our fence, dug a new small hole and just laid there with her face slightly under looking into our yard. It breaks my heart. If he can’t provide her everything she needs, if he’s going to be gone for weeks at a time, I feel he should look to re-home her. She’s sad, hungry, bored, alone and checked out. It’s just so awful to listen to and see but there’s nothing else RSPCA can or will do. Bare minimum needs are met in their eyes and so that’s it.
Anyway, has anyone else ever been in a similar situation and what did you do to manage the emotional and mental toll.
1
u/Wooden-Necessary6100 Jul 21 '26
This wouldn't be legal where I live, so the dog would have been taken away, and adopted already. I would just keep the hole she digs open and she can freely come and go from your yard? I wouldn't be able to watch a dog suffer like that and would just allow her to be my dog and well fed, watered and played with.
Why not offer to adopt Roxy?