I titled it - "Pointing out the obvious"
Reading the article this morning about the senior citizen who had the encounter with the offleash dog at Point Pleasant Park during hours when dogs aren't allowed on Sailor's Memorial Way made me feel compelled to respond to it for 2 reasons.
The first is the fact that the article states that more than 350,000 dogs visit Point Pleasant Park every year - with very few incidents - and this one lady is now meeting with the Mayor of the City because of her encounter - and she wants to know what measures are going to be put in place to make sure that encounters like hers never happen again. That one encounter out of 350,000 as stated in the article. I'd say those are pretty healthy odds that that encounter happens pretty rarely. So what is the City going to do - ban all dogs to stop one out of 350,000 encounters? I certainly hope not!
The second point made in the article is the lady's husband when he said - "If that had been a pit bull she would have been torn to pieces . . . sooner or later it's going to happen to someone," he said. "It comes a time now that we've got to toughen up." I almost lost my breakfast over that one. I'd just like to let her husband know that pit bulls are exactly like every other dog on this planet - healthy, well adjusted dogs that are no more likely to "tear his wife to pieces" - than any other dog. Period.
That whole article was so unnecessary and that couple are doing nothing but furthering the cause of uneducated, bigoted, non-dog owners - they don't need to sit down with the Mayor - they need to meet some responsible dog owners of the Halifax Regional Municipality and become properly educated about what it actually is to own a dog here, and they will soon understand their own very misconceived and
very -- wrong ideas.
Joan Sinden
Wow, I hear you. The assumption that the a loose pit bull could only have torn her up is really upsetting. A half page article on the single incident with a small dog is a bit much. I'll bet bigger events didn't get as much real estate in the paper.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm sorry she got hurt and such a scare. When the cards turn personal, of course one looks to see where to lay the blame. Magnifying it and turning it into a possible mauling is over the top however!