Going to the dogs!
Much has been said about the Michael Vick situation. Much of it has been from the political realm, but I think instead of going there, I am going to go at it from a little different direction.
I make no bones about the fact that I am crazy about my animals. I have shared my life with (in no specific order) 2 horses (Shadow and Dizzy), several cats and dogs Penfold (Pug), Jessie (Brittany Spaniel/Coon hound cross), Heidi (Belgian Shepherd), Poo and Kessa (Doberman Pinsers), Streak (a Heinz 57 - her dam was a beagle) and Candy (beagle cross and dam to Streak) and now Lucky (the worlds best Border Collie). All share a special place in my life. I grew up around Boxers and Labradore Retrievers and Malamutes and just about every other breed under the sun INCLUDING a white Pit Bull Terrier that was our unofficial mascot for our dorm in college! The dogs that have come into my life have all had various levels of training. ALL (except Spot - more on him later) were well socialized to the point of while possibly appearing to be mean (Poo and Heidi scared more than a few trespassers off of our farm even though they were both the biggest babies) they were all pussycats inside.
Spot was another story. Spot was a Labradore Retriever. Labs are not a"dangerous" breed. Spot was the exception to the rule. The reason that Spot was mean, the reason why many so-called "dangerous" breeds are mean is how humans treated him. We had a gaggle of boys in our neighborhood who would stand in the middle of our back yard and simultaneously tease Spot and Streak. Both dogs disliked those boys, but Spot's dislike turned to anyone on our side of the fence. If you walked by the fence and Spot was out, you ran the risk of him jumping (or in the case of my 8 year old sister and her 6 year old friend) him running right through the chain link. If the girls were not right next to our back door where I was standing, those girls would have been dog bite statistics!
Fences too, can cause a dog to act more aggressive to someone on the other side. Our pug (talk about a baby...he would lick you to death if you were not careful) went from being a farm dog to a city dog. When he had the fence between him and the neighbor girls, he would bark and act very mean....when he was out front on the leash. Lucky has alway been a city dog and she is the same way!
How does this all tie into the Michael Vick situation and the John Lesch breed bans you ask? Simple - the human trainers (Vick and his cohorts) used fear and intimidation to turn the dogs mean. The dogs (like Spot) were not born mean - THEY WERE MADE TO BE MEAN!
Rather than banning the breed, we need to make the punishment for the behavior harsher. Right now, animal abuse is a misdemeanor offence - regardless of the extent of the abuse. There needs to be a harsher punishment depending on the offense. The dog will be punished to be sure - once a dog has been "made mean" you have no choice but to euthanize them. However, banning breeds is not the answer. It will not address the underlying human behavior...the behavior that says "It's cool to have the toughest dog on the block". It's always easy to blame the "dumb" dog, but dogs are what we make them to be. It is high time to put the blame back where it belongs.
I make no bones about the fact that I am crazy about my animals. I have shared my life with (in no specific order) 2 horses (Shadow and Dizzy), several cats and dogs Penfold (Pug), Jessie (Brittany Spaniel/Coon hound cross), Heidi (Belgian Shepherd), Poo and Kessa (Doberman Pinsers), Streak (a Heinz 57 - her dam was a beagle) and Candy (beagle cross and dam to Streak) and now Lucky (the worlds best Border Collie). All share a special place in my life. I grew up around Boxers and Labradore Retrievers and Malamutes and just about every other breed under the sun INCLUDING a white Pit Bull Terrier that was our unofficial mascot for our dorm in college! The dogs that have come into my life have all had various levels of training. ALL (except Spot - more on him later) were well socialized to the point of while possibly appearing to be mean (Poo and Heidi scared more than a few trespassers off of our farm even though they were both the biggest babies) they were all pussycats inside.
Spot was another story. Spot was a Labradore Retriever. Labs are not a"dangerous" breed. Spot was the exception to the rule. The reason that Spot was mean, the reason why many so-called "dangerous" breeds are mean is how humans treated him. We had a gaggle of boys in our neighborhood who would stand in the middle of our back yard and simultaneously tease Spot and Streak. Both dogs disliked those boys, but Spot's dislike turned to anyone on our side of the fence. If you walked by the fence and Spot was out, you ran the risk of him jumping (or in the case of my 8 year old sister and her 6 year old friend) him running right through the chain link. If the girls were not right next to our back door where I was standing, those girls would have been dog bite statistics!
Fences too, can cause a dog to act more aggressive to someone on the other side. Our pug (talk about a baby...he would lick you to death if you were not careful) went from being a farm dog to a city dog. When he had the fence between him and the neighbor girls, he would bark and act very mean....when he was out front on the leash. Lucky has alway been a city dog and she is the same way!
How does this all tie into the Michael Vick situation and the John Lesch breed bans you ask? Simple - the human trainers (Vick and his cohorts) used fear and intimidation to turn the dogs mean. The dogs (like Spot) were not born mean - THEY WERE MADE TO BE MEAN!
Rather than banning the breed, we need to make the punishment for the behavior harsher. Right now, animal abuse is a misdemeanor offence - regardless of the extent of the abuse. There needs to be a harsher punishment depending on the offense. The dog will be punished to be sure - once a dog has been "made mean" you have no choice but to euthanize them. However, banning breeds is not the answer. It will not address the underlying human behavior...the behavior that says "It's cool to have the toughest dog on the block". It's always easy to blame the "dumb" dog, but dogs are what we make them to be. It is high time to put the blame back where it belongs.
Labels: Breed Specific Legislation
posted by The Lady Logician at
5:44 PM
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