Friday, June 12, 2009

Give the dead a voice

We need to start personalizing this slaughter. Simply saying a thousand Pit Bulls killed or even ten thousand isn't going to get the public's wandering attention. They'll just file those numbers onto their starving kids in Africa list of problems they don't want to be hassled with.

The dead dog needs a name; it needs a face; it needs a personality. People need to know that the innocent dog was killed on their behalf. They need to feel that the dead dog is not much different from their own. In fact, it could be their own if and when the breed specific legislation portion of the Dog Owner's Liability Act in this province expands its list of banned breeds.

From Nathan Winograd's blog post, The Killing of Puppy 43063 (h/t Yes Biscuit):

Your Honor, on June 19, 2007, a 12-week-old brown and white puppy … entered the Loudon County shelter and was given number 43063. He was never given a name… the puppy was killed by the shelter, never having been given a chance to live, never having been given a name. Why? Contrary to state law and contrary to local law, puppy number 43063 was never put up for adoption and was killed for one reason and one reason only: Puppy number 43063 was identified by the shelter as a pit bull mix. On the puppy’s pre-euthanasia report, the official reason for euthanasia is typed in as “breed.” Let me repeat that. The recorded reason for why puppy number 43063 was killed under current shelter policies was “breed.” That reason at some point was crossed out in ink and “behavioral observations” was written in its place. Behavioral observations. The shelter’s canine behavior assessment for puppy number 43063 notes that the puppy, “Approaches the front of the kennel seeking evaluator’s attention. Happily greets evaluator. Is sociable. Initiates gentle, physical contact. Wanted to be in evaluator’s lap. Moves closer for further attention. In evaluator’s lap playing. Wiggly. Leans against you. Bouncing around. Very lovey. –Counsel for Plaintiffs, Animal Rescue of Tidewater vs. Loudon County, Virginia, May 5, 2009.

This happened in Virginia. This happens in Ontario. Not because sadistic psychopaths are murdering pups in their basements but because our laws demand it.

Every dog deserves to be evaluated on its own merit. When our laws command us to kill innocents, we must fight the law.

6 comments:

Joanne said...

The systematic killing of one particular group based on certain characteristics is genocide, plain and simple. This is not being done in my name, I did not ask anyone to implement this law..I would much prefer you lock up for a very long time child abusers and drunks....not kill some innocent, sweet puppy because some fool decided that his parentage (which probably had not been proven in any way) was sufficient cause to end his life. I have not been, am not and will not be party to this... The Liberals are a bunch of savage, uncouth, uncultured, ignorant barbarians..... I know that this is not the tale of a puppy killed in Ontario although I am sure there were large numbers of them. For Christ's sake a damn puppy...they must be so proud. Fools.....

Ian said...

I was just wondering...have official numbers been kept by anyone as to actually how many dogs have been killed due to this Ontario law or is there even an estimate?
I know even one is too many but maybe people would be more outraged if they knew the scope of the problem.
I was talking to a neighbor last evening and I mentioned how I thought this law was so unfair and unjust.
His response was "It`s not as if they`re killing them, they just have to be muzzled."
That made me wonder just how many people think that.

Fred said...

The estimate is in the thousands:

http://wagthedog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/6/14/3744565.html

Where you can get official numbers, I'm not sure. Not even sure if those numbers are kept anywhere or how accurate they would be if they were kept. I might do a search for that later.

Ian said...

Holy smokes.
I don`t know what else to say.
What on earth are they killing if only one of the dogs was a Pure Breed and there are so few Pure Breeds?

I may be wrong but
I don`t think most people know this and if they did I don`t think ordinary people would support what`s happening.
How could they?

Ian said...

I just read about this dog.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/651909
You may know about it but do others know about this?

This is crazy.

Fred said...

Ian, I've been meaning to write about this but I've been too busy. It's a very important decision which I think is why the province and the city are fighting it. They know that if they lose, then that would set a precedent for judging every dog based on its merit and not on breed, thus annulling the BSL portion of the DOLA.

You can find more info on BSL and the fight to save Ginger here:

http://www.responsibledogowners.ca/newsletters.html