Breed Specific Legislation = Discrimination

When has discrimination and genocide been right, regardless of the species?  It wasn’t right when Hitler declared Jews to be a sub-species of the human race and sought to exterminate them.  It wasn’t right when, in one of our less than shining moments as a nation, we sent American citizens of Japanese descent to Interment camps.  It wasn’t right when we had Jim Crow laws on the books and allowed people to be segregated by the color of their skin.  Is banning a breed of dog any different?  Especially, since most people can not actually point out a pit bull to save their life.  They can only identify what they think a pit bull looks like. 

Until the 1950’s, the American Pit Bull Terrier was THE family dog.  It was the dog in the Coppertone advertisement and other wholesome images.  In the last 30 years there has been a smear campaign against this breed. 

You only hear about dog attacks if there is a pit bull involved, because that is the dog that the media wants to victimize.  Nobody wants to hear about the Labrador Retriever that attacked or bit its owners children.  The reality is that if a dog is in a bad environment and mistreated, it will act accordingly.  When that happens, we automatically give the dog a death sentence and never look at the true perpetrators of the problems, the owners.  

Very seldom are the dogs given a second chance to be rehabilitated.  Fear is what drives the uneducated in animal ownership to kill the dogs.  One of the most visible examples has been the Michael Vick case.  If PETA had their way everyone of those dogs would had been euthanized.  But dedicated organizations and individuals showed us what mercy, compassion and a positive environment can do to rehabilitate a traumatized dog.  These dogs have gone on to homes, they have become therapy dogs, and those too tramatized by events are in a safe environment where they are learning to trust humans.

The very acts of compassion and mercy give us a glimpse of hope.  If these simple principles can work on dogs, what wonders could they work on mankind.  What would happen if we looked at the world through the eyes of compassion and mercy, if we treated everyone and everything with kindness?

The more we try to legislate behavior, the less we expect people to do the right thing naturally.  When we do not expect people to step up and do right, bad things happen and our children have to clean up the mess.

Do not let discrimination or genocide of any sort take root in our communities.