Ode to the pooches of Thursday Island

While I am eternally frustrated that the Torres Shire Council refuses to enforce local animal management laws to address the problem of roaming, neglected and aggressive dogs, I am, at heart, an optimist. Therefore, I am most grateful for the ongoing opportunities council affords me to explore writing genres to voice my complaints. 
     Email, formal letter, screen play, narrative (check out the anthology from the Tropical Writers' Group) and exposition have all failed to prompt council to administer the laws it is funded to administer.  So I tried poetry.  

     Sadly, I face the risk of exhausting the genres, though Report and Procedure remain.
     Don't fear, I can use art!

     If you missed this poem in Edition 1092 of the Torres News (November 18-24) on page 9, here it is. 

Once upon a time

Once upon a time on an island far away

Torres Shire Council was the ruler of the day

They couldn’t use local laws and tell constituents what to do

So the doggy population grew and grew and grew

Covered in ticks and fleas and mange, found in every second street

Some dogs scavenged scraps while others, well, puppies they had to eat

To the top of the pack these alpha dogs did rise

And runners, walkers and children, they loved to terrorise

Diabetes and obesity are a part of modern life

Exercise would help, but not when aggressive dogs are rife

Council knew yet did bugger all so my advice was that

‘It’s safer to stay home and accept that you’ll be fat’

Subsidised desexing was the answer to woofer woes

Uterus and testicle, snip, snip, the lot, it goes

One thing had to happen before this reason came to pass

Council needed to stop this eternal farce

So you say I should have written a respectful letter

To council who could have made the canine problem better

And residents could have enjoyed this island without fear

Tsk, tsk, that’s just not how things are done around here

Now I must bring my nth complaint to a poetic end

Council will go on ruling, or rather, just pretend

About the dogs they’ll do nothing and I’ll remain appalled

And keep my prayers a going that no child is ever mauled 

This one comes every couple of months when the bitches in Pearl Street are on heat.  Poor thing is attacked by competing males which may explain the broken tail. He has been visiting for some years.

Roaming dogs