We live in the 'hood. Not necessarily like you see in LA or New York or Chicago. No where near that. But, for the city we live in, even though it's not the worst part of the city, it can qualify as being the 'hood. We have break-ins. Stolen cars. And occasionally, even, a shooting. Thank God we've never been broken into. But we've had cars stolen. Actually -- minivans. Three in one summer. Craziness.
We even have a crazy lady down the street who's tried to kidnap one of my kids. Who actually did barge her way into our house one day. And, because of other things she did after the judge ordered no contact with us, she spent 6 months in jail and we got her to plead to a felony charge. We now have a five-year restraining order on her that, amazingly, she is abiding by.
We also have sex offenders in the general vicinity. Because we live close to a school, they're not right next door or even on our street. But they're there. And so we watch our kids like hawks, they watch each other, and we have safety rules.
All that being said, I love our neighborhood. I love the people who live around us. The people on our two blocks have lived here for decades. Many of them have birthed children, raised children, grown old and died here. The ones who are still alive have children who are moving back into the neighborhood to be close to parents and to take advantage of the relative safety of our pocket of the city. They move back in because of the amazing real estate prices. You can get a whole LOTTA house for your money in my neighborhood. Yeah, the homes need work -- like ours needs a ton -- but they have character. We have young families who are in ministry and plan to have lots of children who are moving in because they know they can afford what they want in our neighborhood. These young moms can home school because the house payment (including insurance and taxes) runs around $500 or $600/ month. I KNOW! Craziness, once again.
Despite all the bad in our neighborhood I listed above, there is one thing that I despise above all others about my neighborhood and that's the stray or loose dogs and cats. And the fact that every other person who walks through our neighborhood has a pitbull. And sometimes, these pits are loose and chase children. I'm more concerned about my child be mauled by a pitbull than I am about the crazy lady down the street or the sex offender three blocks away.
For the record, I know pitbulls can be nice dogs. My cousin has one and the kids love him. Nice dog. Wouldn't trust him around the kids alone, just in case, but no problems yet. But the pits in our neighborhood are not like Stryder. They're abused, neglected, and trained to fight. So when one gets loose, in my mind it's like firing a gun. Trained, fighting pitbulls are weapons. They can damage and kill just as easily as a gun. So when our dog warden kills pits that come into his facility without a waiting period -- puppies and all -- I'm okay with that. Because otherwise it's like leaving loaded guns lying around; you never know who might pick one up and fire. With a badly trained or abused pitbull, you never know when one will go off.
So, GOOD JOB! dog warden! I know you're catching flack for your policy but I, and many other parents of the city thank you!
We always do, we always do.
3 weeks ago
Oh really? What if your children were different breeds and someone said that about just one of them? If one of them escaped and someone turned them in to be reuinted, but because of their breed, they were just sent off to doom? I certainly hope you're done multiplying because this world can't stand any more intolerance.
ReplyDeleteReally? SERIOUSLY? Because a child is JUST LIKE a trained, fighting pitbull. I find it so amazing that you would accuse ME of being intolerant to other human beings when A.) I wrote about DOGS and B.) YOU'RE the one being intolerant.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not the intolerant one - simply drawing a parallel. Perhaps your "Mommy brain" isn't able to differentiate.
ReplyDeleteYour post indicated ALL pit bulls, whether they're "trained, fighting" or not. Here's a news flash - any dog, any size can be "trained" to be mean. It doesn't matter if it's a pit or terrier.
I love my dogs as much, if not more, than you love your children. Why is it not the same thing? You're willing to put my dogs to sleep on contact with the local animal shelter. Seems the intolerant crown goes to you!
I would first like to point out that I find it extremely offensive that you would accuse another women of not loving her KIDS as much as you love your dogs. Maybe you are not a mother of the human variety (being that I am sure that in your mind you are the "mother" of your animals), but I know that pretty much any mother would go to the mat for her kids. That was just a bad move.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I would like to point out that humans and animals are just not even in the same realm. Don't get me wrong, I love animals as much as the next person. I love my dog. She's my baby girl and I spoil her and love on her like no other. However, I have to say that if I am not responsible enough to keep track of her and put tags on her that identify just who she belongs to and someone were to find her and take her to a shelter or the pound where she was then put down... well, I would have to say that that would pretty much be my fault. Granted, my dog is not a vicious breed. But if I do not take responsibility for her, then what happens to her is on my hands.
Pits are like any other breed of dog. And, as you said, any dog can be trained to be mean... However, in our part of the city (I happen to live in the same area as Katie) pit bulls are used for fighting more than they are brought into homes to be family pets. You see people walking down the street with their pit puppy packed up with the weight packs... and just what, may I ask, do you think they are grooming that dog for?
It's a sad situation. But the truth is, if a pit is running loose with NO TAGS and no indication of where it belongs, it is more than likely already a fighting dog or is being groomed as such. You can accept that or not. That's up to you. I mean, you're right. Not ALL pits are being groomed to fight... but those that aren't are taken better care of than these unfortunate "pets" that end up at the pound. And keeping those stray pit bulls around to be adopted is JUST like leaving a loaded gun laying around. Anyone can adopt it and it can become just another tool for the perverse people who insist on fighting dogs. If you don't want your pit bull to be put down, then take responsibility for her and make she she has tags that identify her as your pet. When thought about, the bigger problem here is irresponsible individuals that are not responsible enough to own ANY dog. NOT whether or not our warden decides to put down stray pits with no tags that come in.
Just some things to think about.
On the contrary "Ms. Things to Think About" - the proverbial bone of contention I have with the original poster's view is that her interpretation disregard any owner details (such as tags/registration/chipping) that the animal may have.
ReplyDeleteInstead, the original poster is delighted that the animal control facility will simply be terminating the lives of these animals, regardless of whether they have owners who love them and want them back.
I've never let my animals run. We have a fenced back yard at the maximum height allowed by our county. Am I fearful that some day, a forgetful repair person may leave the front door open or someone will make a digging escape in hot pursuit of the chipmunk who torments them? Absolutely. I would be horrified if my animals were ever out, however just in case, my pets all wear collars as well as chips. Oh, and did I mention they're rescue animals? Adopted from a shelter similar to the one your careless and inconsiderate friend who clearly called you up to have you comemnt on her blog for backup wants to kill the breed of her choice?
So yes, when I'm equating her children to my dogs, I mean it. Because really, how different is it? It's not. And I stand by - what if out of her menagerie of kids, one was selected to "not make the cut"? It is the SAME thing.
Perhaps THAT'S something to think about on the tolerance level before levying the opinions.
And I hope the animal control "officer" is terminated. I'd certainly be requesting it at the next City Council meeting.
Actually, she didn't call me up to have me comment on her blog and I find it entertaining that you fancy yourself such a riveting blog commenter that someone would actually CALL someone else to comment on your idiocy. No one actually cares THAT MUCH about what you think, especially if you cannot think outside of your own "enlightened" animal-loving box. I personally find individuals who put animals before people to be individuals incapable of human emotion and void of most common sense. Which is primarily why they choose to relate to life forms that cannot understand more than one or two word commands at a time. Animals are animals. If my dog gets hit by a car... yeah.. that's pretty sad. If my KID gets hit by a car, that's a tragedy. No matter the extent of personification one employs on their own pet, animals are below people on the food chain and on the evolutionary tree. Period. They cannot think on the level that people do. They have no real moral center. They do what they are trained and conditioned to do. Including attacking people. Do I think our animal control officer should target pits? No. Do I think he should put down more animals that come into the shelter? Yes. Because the world is EXTREMELY overpopulated with animals and there just simply are not enough homes or resources to take care of all the animals that thoughtless people abandon or lose. Heartless? Maybe. But at least practical.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that humanity protects its weakest links. If we, like all other life forms on this planet (including your precious dogs), allowed natural selection to take its course... Well, I have no doubt that we would probably not be having this conversation.