Wake Up People

The first victims of human irresponsibility. (Photo credit unknown)

After the storm of comment in last week's entry I had planned something very different for this week's entry. A group, I have named the Haters, attacked my request for the supporters of the American Pit Bull Terrier to take a stand against breed biased legislation in Missouri. After a week of the entry circulating the social media sites I was somewhat stunned to learn how many owners of this breed had no idea there was any threat to their ownership the level of what was represented in response to a small town blog.

Many of those who support the Pit Bull profess their undying love. They feel the only threat to their chosen companion comes from the abusers, the thugs, the dog fighters and the breeders. Bring up the topic of proposed bans or restrictions and the law makers also join the list of perceived threats. There is another threat to this breed and one which must not be ignored any longer. This is the irresponsible owner and the complacency in which we address this ongoing threat. The most recent example of what I have been preaching about regarding the irresponsible owner comes to us from Detroit Michigan.

On Friday December 4 a four year old walking with his mother was attacked and drug back under a fence into a yard by two adult Pit Bulls. The two adults, one a pregnant female, and the remaining puppies from a previous litter proceeded to maul this little boy who later died from his injuries. I have emphasized "back under the fence" for a reason.

In the majority of these cases the aggressive nature of the dogs attacking is known by not only the owners but animal control. Read more than the headlines and you will find mention of a pattern of behavior that has been an issue in the past. More than once I have said "Once is an ooops, twice is the beginning of a habit". This is not exclusive to the Pit Bull. It is evidenced by the exposure of the public to all dogs with a known human aggressive nature.

In this case it took a bit of digging but the facts of this case leading up to this child's death is that a human being knew there was a problem and did nothing to remedy a tragedy waiting to happen. They get out on a regular basis," Samuels said. "The kids meet up with other football kids and go to school and they were telling how often the dogs get out."

The yard the dogs were in had a fence roughly 8 inches off the ground.

Strickland says this isn't the first time these same dogs attacked her family. Just two weeks ago, Xaiver's sister was bit.

She says she called animal control, but now she's calling for more drastic action.

Now please tell me who was responsible for this little boy's death? Dogs do ONLY what we allow and in this case their behavior was ignored not only by their idiot owner but by the very agency charged with keeping the public and its companion animals safe from harm.

This comes at a time when the Michigan legislation is considering eliminating the crutch of holding dogs responsible for their own behavior. You will notice in reading the article regarding this legislation the same toxic faction of Haters which attacked this blog last week is front and center in their opposition of said legislation. We have the usual obvious enemies of this breed but the Haters and those who give them the ammunition to destroy our dogs are an even greater enemy.

In all the years I have spent going from town to town addressing breed bans and restrictions in every single case the town had the power to address problem dogs yet were not using it. Targeting specific breeds or size of dogs is ludicrous. Use the power your laws and ordinances already have in place and consistently enforce them. There are a number of organizations and activists willing to help draft updated rules which hold owners to a strict code of responsibility without targeting a specific breed. Address the problem not the symptom.

My original plan for this week's entry and weeks to follow was a re-cap of past entries. The push to remove the burden of guilt from the dog to the human at the other end of the leash is time sensitive. I do not feel in the interest of that time factor simply re-submitting these archived entries is in our best interest. We as responsible owners are the only ones who can demand the media stop the decades old practice of portraying this breed as something it was never meant to be which has resulted in a dog almost unrecognizable from its beginnings. It is also going to fall to us to demand our law enforcers do their job when it comes to dogs being reported as a nuisance. In the case of the tragedy from Michigan what reasonably intelligent person thinks a fence eight inches off the ground will keep ANY dog contained?

You say you love this breed and you are willing to fight to save it. Then look at all the ways the Pit Bull is being failed. There is a huge picture out there to consider and it is time we stopped ignoring our own culpability in what happens around us!