My beautiful flower, Daisy...
One of the places that I posted my email about the upcoming vigil was the Hfx.general newsgroup - I hadn't looked at it until this morning to see if there'd been any feedback and sure enough - there was. So me being me - I had to respond! I typed out a huge response - it took me almost an hour, and then I pressed one button.... and I lost the whole thing! I laid my head in front of Buttercup's belly and I cried. It had been a beautiful response - so well done I thought and it was gone.... I hate it when that happens. Usually when I've been writing something for a long time I save it - I'm a good secretary that way because there's nothing I hate more in this world than having to redo something. Oh well... so I rewrote the whole thing to the best of my ability - but this time I did it in Notepad and saved it about every 3 minutes! haha! So here's the post I sent:
I am so glad that you've all been discussing this topic! Let me tell you what I think about some of what you've been talking about.
Wonkey said: "Hopefully we can start putting down pitbulls soon here too. How many children have to be killed by these dogs before people like you start to realize how dangerous they are. You have to be a total moron to compare putting down pitbulls to the holocaust! Its like saying Jews are dogs."
My name is Joan - does that mean that nobody before of after me can be called "Joan"? If you go to Dictionary.com you'll see that is defined as "a massive slaughter" or " sacrificial offering that is consumed entirely by flames." It's a hebrew biblical term that was not created for the attempted annihilation of the Jews by Hitler. And I think it's an entirely approperiate use of the term. I may be a total moron, but not because of the way I use my vocabulary or choose my words.
Wonkey said: "Bring your kids too, maybe we can watch them get eaten! "
I'm not that big a fan of children, they tend to run around screaming - their parents are never in control of them, they knock everything over they come in touch with, they smell funny - they just generally give me a headache - but if parents choose to bring their children with them it will give us dog-owners an opportunity to show them how to properly act around dogs and how to approach a dog so that those children won't become a statistic and any time they are around dogs in the future their interactions will be loving and fun because they've been shown how to give love to rather than torment and scare dogs.
Jimdo said: Pit Bulls and Rottweilers should be banned from Canada. Period. If you are a dog lover, and I AM, then buy another dog. It is that simple. Furthermore, I think showing up at your rally with your non-pitbull
dog, is akin to showing up at an NRA rally with a pocketknife."
I LOVE this statement. Let me tell you why I got into the fight against breed specific legislation - because I own 2 pocket knives and a rottie mix - and I got the rottie mix AFTER I started fighting against BSL and I intially was only going to foster the rottie mix, not adopt her. I believe that fighting against BSL is about respect for ALL dogs - different breeds of dog are as different as different races of humans - as different as Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, German, French and YOU are. To say anything else is simply untrue. And I believe that God is the one who decided who should be on this earth and he's the one who decides who leaves this earth - not the legislators and elected officals. And because all dogs are the same breed specific legislation is being disprespectful to MY dog because they are saying that a type of dog isn't worthy of being on this earth - a type of dog that really IS just like my dog - so they're saying that DOGS aren't worthy of being on this earth and that's just not right. Dogs are my chosen life time companion - so I'm going to fight to keep them because they may decide that the look of the dog that I own is next. And I don't believe that the analogy of dogs as pocket knives and guns is correct - I believe that dogs are like delicate flowers - they wilt very quickly when they don't have any sunshine or love - but when given lots of love, gentle care, love, fresh air and good food - they'll blossom and be the most beautiful creatures you can ever imagine.
Ann said: "Isn't this the type of dog you're holding a vigil to try to protect? - http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=1001&sc=2 - "
We are very lucky here in the HRM in that we already have in place the kind of legislation that people opposed to BSL are fighting to try and get. We have "dangerous dog legislation" - which doesn't refer to any breed in particular - it just deals with a dog who has proven itself to be aggressive and owners who have proven themselves to be negligent. This story is a perefect case in point. #1 I'm going to say that the dog is in fact a pit bull - the lady in the story SAYS it was a pit bull, but a majority of the cases it turns out not to be - so it may have been a lab mix, or a hound mix, or a rhodesian ridgeback - it could've been any number of a mix of dogs and the person doing the running will call it a "pit bull". So I'm not going to comment on that part. But this dog has bitten before - so Animal Control has a history on this dog - so that dog has already probably already been seized and been taken away because the owner has shown himself to be negligent - the dog was running at large and wasn't contained - so that dog will never see his owner again. He will be in Animal Control for 72 hours and will be assessed - if he's determined to be truly aggressive he'll be killed right there. If not then he'll be turned over to the SPCA where he'll go through more temperament tests - and I know the lady who does the temperament testing at the SPCA and she's fantastic - he'll go through a lot of testing so see whether or not he'll make a good pet dog - if he's got any kind of quirks at all he'll be humaely euthanized - but if he's a super dog he'll be put up for adoption and have a super life. He may have bitten this lady and the people before simply because he was hungry, or he had a health issue, or something we know nothing about - the SPCA will fix it and adopt him out. But that's they beauty of dangerous dog legislation - it legislates the containment and safety of the dog, and if that is not complied with the dog is removed from the owner - because the OWNER is negligent - the DOG is not the one who suffers. Unless the dog is actually dangerous - then the dog is killed. But the WHOLE BREED doesn't suffer - only individual dogs - because of what that individual dog has done - and it could be a cocker spaniel, or a poodle - it doesn't matter. That's what we're fighting for. So I'm very glad you pointed out that article Ann - it's a perfect example!
Lastly, Donna said: Pit bulls already owned within Ontario are protected so long as they are kept under proper care and control. There are more restrictions on
them but they're not going to be put down if the owners follow the more restrictive rules. No one will be able to purchase, import or breed them from now on and they WILL be seized if illegally acquired or not controlled. Personally, I cannot imagine why anyone would want to own a dog like a pit bull of a Presa Canario ( the kind of dog whose attack on a lady in the hallway or an apartment building led to a well publicized court case). If they have kids around an animal like that, they need their head examined. There was a recent case in the U.S. where a woman went out leaving her son shut in the basement because the pit bull was "nasty". She was probably scared to try and get the dog in the basement. Anyway, the kid snuck out and the dog mauled him to death. The mother actually unbelievably said "It must have been his time to go". Too bad it was the kid and not her. "
True - living pit bulls born before a certain date are grandfathered in in Ontario - but they have to be muzzled at all times and on a 6 foot leash when off the ownerss property. Bill 132 also changed the rules for dogs being sold for animal experimentation as well Shelters selling dogs to labaoratories and what they're able to do to those dogs is going to be absolutely horrific. As well - dogs seen as "menacing" and what menacing is being defined as has changed - and that applies to ALL dogs and not just pit bulls - so if your neighbour calls and says your dog - no matter what the breed - is menacing and scaring them - you'd better watch out. The dog-haters have taken over that province - that I can guarantee you.
As for owning that "kind" of dog - fate has a way of changing all kinds of people's lives Donna. You can't dismiss anything. I do want to say a word about that San Fransisco case about the little boy who's mother locked him in the basement to keep him away from the 2 family pit bulls. It turned out that the mother was a bit of a fruit cake (mentally unstable) - and the 2 pit bulls were an unaltered female and male who'd been trying to mate for the previous couple of days but the female didn't want to have anything to do with the male so he had become a bit pissed off. The mother had publicly said that she'd "never had a problem with the dogs before" but people in her neighbourhood begged to differ - everybody said that "sometimes the dogs were fine and sometimes the dogs were nasty" - so I'd say that when the female was in heat that the male was protective of his woman. The mother had locked the kid in the basement because the kid had gotten in between the 2 dogs earlier in the day and almost gotten seriously wounded - so she didn't want him to get more seriously wounded while she went out - the poor kid didn't realize that he could actually get killed by the dogs who most times slept in his bed at night. Obviously the mother never told him about the birds and the bees - all he ever saw was the mother slapping the male dogs ass when he was constantly trying to mount the girl dog - which is probably what he tried to do before the male turned on him to kill him. So there's always several sides to every story, Donna. Another instance of children left unsupervised around dogs - and another instance of if this was another breed of dog - the same thing could've happened - if it was a german shepherd the outcome would've been just as tragic. But it was a breed that just happens to be the most popular breed in North America right now.
So with all this said - this is why I think it's so important to come to the vigil next Sunday - to show the rest of Canada that we love our dogs - that we love ALL dogs - and that the horrible experiment that's going on in Ontario is not going to happen unnoticed. And when it fails that hopefully it will never happen again - that because it happened so publicly and failed so horribly - and so publicly - that it won't ever happen anywhere again and won't need to happen again. It will have been documented enough - that the 1000's of dogs who will have died in Ontario - will have perhaps not have died completely in vain. Their deaths will perhaps some meaning and will save tens of thousands of other deaths around the world - because breed specific legislation will finally be seen for what it is - unenforceable and useless. Generic dangerous dog legislation and education are the only things that will save your childrens, and other dogs lives'.
And that's what we're going to talk about next Sunday - with all our chosen breeds' by our side - at 8pm at the Gazebo up the road from the Shakespear by the Sea offices at Point Pleasant Park - I hope to see you there!!!
Joan
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http://dogkisser.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/charlieloveshalifax/index.html
http://www.cafepress.com/dogkisser
http://www.geocities.com/skip_guysborough/index.html
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