I read this article over the weekend that I loved. When I first heard of the dog fighting ring that Mr. Vick decided to fund and start, I was sick. I am an animal lover. I went to school to learn how to make these creatures better, and I worked for many many years in animal hospitals trying to do so. One of my biggest pet peeves is the bad name that a lot of the bigger dogs get because of their breed or size. You always here “don’t go near that dog, it’s a Rottweiler, it might bite”, or my favorite of all, “Pitt bulls have no right to be in this world, they need to all be put down. The only thing they are good for is fighting, so just get rid of the breed”. This bothers me. After working for more than 10 years in the veterinary field, biggest thing I learned is fear the little dogs (or the cats with cute names like “fluffy”) because they are the ones that are going to try to eat you. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a Doberman or Rotti, knock me off my feet by leaning up against me wanting attention, wanted to get their ears scratched. I have dealt with the huge dogs called Presa canarios, you know, the ones that were euthanized and feared in CA because they mauled a woman to death. That is an unusual circumstance… I had two come into the office where I worked and I patted them hello before I knew what was wrong. Little did I know that one of them was injured pretty badly in the area that I was patting. Did I get bit? No, did the dog get mad? No… he whimpered and lay down until it was his turn. I apologized and he licked my hand as if to say “that’s okay, you didn’t know”.
Anyway, when I first heard about this dog fighting ring that was broken up, I was glad. Those dogs had a horrible lifestyle. Then I got to thinking… most likely, all of these dogs are going to be euthanized because they were bred to fight and nothing more. It made me sad. This article that I read really brightened my day. MOST of the dogs are in foster care. Most are going through obedience training. Some are going to be working at therapy dogs in the future. There was one line in there that really struck me… a lot of shelters were seeing this and realizing they didn’t have to euthanize every pitt bull that came into the shelter.
I am glad for the happy ending!!!
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I'm opposed to breed bans for many reasons. I blogged about it over the summer. Even if it were something that would stop dog attacks, there is no way to enforce it. People who fight their dogs don't take them to the dog park or walk them down the street on a leash or provide them with veterinary care. An unenforcable law is a waste of time and money.
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