How not to advertise a pet needing a new home on social media | Delta Dunklin Democrat reporter Laura Ford in all her glory

My third grade teacher once told me, “Never say or do anything that you wouldn’t want  to see splashed all over the morning newspaper.”

Words to live by.

In this day and age, one would think the same goes with social media. One would also think that this is something a reporter would be privy to.

But not Delta Dunklin Democrat reporter, Laura Ford. It’s likely she’s learning though, since she publicly posted her advertisement of two dogs in need of a home on Facebook- if advertisement is what you want to call it.

There had to be a better way to word this.

Apparently Laura is in a bit of a bind, but no one can tell that by her post. She’s recently gone through a family tragedy and is caring for an elderly parent. Sometime within the last handful of weeks two Labrador  pups were dumped at her parents home, out in the country, where she has been trying to care for them. She’s decided that it is more than she can handle and made a call to a local shelters. When she did not receive a call back and no one came after the pups, she made her Facebook post.

We only find out the situation later when someone else comments to that effect. Maybe if Laura had included that information in her post, people reading would not have been so angered; responses wouldn’t have been so harsh.

When Donna tries to help, Laura shoots her down telling Donna she’s already called one shelter. One. Way to knock yourself out there Laura.

And her daughter, Reagan, who is defending Laura, was once or still is, a vet tech that thinks “a bullet to the head” is “just as effective” as traditional euthanasia drugs administered by a licensed vet.

Apparently Laura had advertised the dogs on Facebook previously but she hadn’t responded to anyone offering to help.

And when someone calls Laura to task about having previously advertised the pups as little darlings, and is now wanting to kill the dogs, Reagan again comes to her mother’s rescue comparing it to how she herself refers to or talks about her children.

It’s anyone’s guess what a family gathering would be like with these two rays of sunshine.

On last check there was a rescue lined up to get the pups but Laura was not at all bothered by her presentation of the situation, even after all the nasty responses, and felt completely justified citing the end result was the desired affect.

“…letting people know what you may have to do if no help arrives, can bring the best results”, says Laura. 

That may very well be true but it also shows what a callous individual Laura is.

Laura deleted her post and all the entertaining comments that followed, likely because the post was public and some of her not so loving “fans” were tagging her employer and other people not so fond of Laura.

Not to worry though, screen shots of Laura’s original post were shared by dozens of rescues and laymen within a matter of hours and are currently all over the internet. It’s certain that her employer has already received numerous comments about her behavior, although it won’t be the first time, and they likely don’t care.

It’s not the first disappointing episode she’s been involved with concerning animals and their welfare, as one of the newspaper’s readers didn’t mind sharing  on the newspaper’s Facebook page.

Posts can be deleted and people can be blocked from your social media pages. But screen shots and the internet are forever- kind of like printed newspapers, Laura.

Sincerely,
“The Blogger”