Dogtown (The Simpsons) run animal medicine places like the poor Dr. Budgie, who gets arrested and put into shackles. Dr. Budgie's plea for Springfield to realize that the dogs will soon notice that humans have advocated their alpha status and turn on the citizens isn't taken seriously until it actually happens. Even Santa's Little Helper joins the feral dog pack, as the town hides from the now-vicious dogs, and a town meeting leads to the community begging their most broken-down citizen to help them: Gil. Gil's ready to face down his fellow street creatures, but it's Marge who steps up, and after finding
Santa's Little Helper emotional range. And both will growl and possibly snap if you try to take their food." Although animals in cartoons often behave with "semi-human awareness", Groening said on the DVD audio commentary for the episode "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" that he prefers animals in cartoons to behave exactly the way they do in real life. As a result, Santa's Little Helper is depicted in this way on the show. There have, however, been some exceptions for gags, but most of the time the staff of "The Simpsons" tries to keep animals acting realistically. Several journalists have commented on the