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Woke

Our politics and the animal welfare profession is driven by the fringe.  The fringe is so fervent in their beliefs that they are prone to violence; that is why the rest of us stay quietly in the middle.

In human politics, we encounter self-proclaimed individuals who are over sensitive on every issue, who claim that we cannot be woke unless we believe exactly like them.  This past week, they went way past the line of reason.  Their longtime solution is to erase history so that we cannot celebrate our past.  America is great because we have done some wonderful things and have learned from our mistakes.

This same fringe is driving the animal welfare movement, they would have us put animals before people.  This “Animals First” movement has led to animal shelter staff and volunteers lying about animals to get them adopted.  But, our mission is not to get an animal into every home, it is to get them into the right home.

For pet owners, if your dog is chained in your backyard, you are definitely not woke.

Being woke is being sensitive to the plight of others.  Unfortunately, the determination of being woke is in the hands of over-sensitive people; who find issues where no issue exists.

Probably the greatest area of animal welfare awokeness is the belief that every breed is the same.  In our plight to get people to believe that pitbulls are like any other breed, national organizations make that a part of their belief system.

During my career as an animal control officer, I have been bitten by several animals and I can vouge that not every breed is the same.  I have found that I would rather be bitten by a poodle than a pitbull.  Most animal control officers would agree.  Poodles are very rarely in the news for killing someone.

Our woke society would have you believe that dog breeds are no different.  I have to tell you that dog bites are different.  The reason that pitbulls are in the news more frequently is that they belong to owners who do not recognize their potential to cause harm.  Poodles are more likely to bite, but less likely to cause any serious damage.

There is a large segment of our society who are bad pet owners.  Unfortunately, only the ones who are the owners of powerful breeds ever make the news.

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Pitbulls

The first pitbull arrived in my city in the mid 1980’s. The owner wanted to have a breed with a reputation; this dog did not live up to that reputation’ it was a very friendly dog. The original desire to own a pitbull was for owners to claim that their dog was the meanest on the block. For that reason, breeders began breeding dangerous characteristics into the breed. Clearly, the breed was attracted to the worst pet owners.

Since bad pet owners do not believe in sterilizing their pets, pitbulls have become the most dominant breed in animal shelters. This has created a difficult time for shelters trying to become no-kill; to maintain their adoption numbers with their shelter intakes being 50% pitbulls.

Pitbulls are not necessarily a bad breed, they just require an unusually responsible pet owner. As pet owners have become increasingly lazy, finding a good owner for a pitbull is problematic. It is not a breed that you can just take to the dog park and turn loose; as with any powerful breed they require constant oversight.

Incidents of dog bites is proof of poor pet ownership. Foolish pet owners fail to realize the bite potential of their pet.  There is a growing group that will try  to tell unsuspecting potential adopters that the pitbull is no different than any other breed.  This is a false narrative.  Although pitbulls are one of the most loyal breeds, the breed has genetic traits towards aggression.  The aggressive traits can be controlled, but require a watchful pet owner.  Most acts of aggression by pitbulls are the result of the owner being too lazy to accept their responsibility for keeping the breed.

Due to the unpredictability of the breed and the bad owners that were attacked to the breed, many communities decided to protect themselves by banning the breed.  Pitbull owners were eventually able to circumvent the ban by identifying their pitbulls as a service animals.   Due to the abuse by reckless owners, many airlines stopped permitting “emotional support animals”  in the passenger section of the airplane unless the animal is “professionally certified.”  This brought a new internet business of pet owners being able to obtain fake certifications.

There has been a great effort to turn people’s attitudes away from seeing the pitbull breed as a potentially dangerous breed.   The problem that this breed faces is that they belong to owners who fail to accept the dog’s potential to do harm.  We continue to see incidents of people injured by the breed and it all due to the stupidity of the dog’s owner.

I appreciate seeing news reports of pet owners being charged with reckless endangerment when their dogs have repeatedly bitten people.  I hate to see animals destroyed for the stupidity of their owners, but euthanizing an aggressive dog is the only way to protect the community from an ignorant pet owner.  Unfortunately, we have far too many of them in our communities.