March 28, 2024

Every dog can be a good dog

Breed specific legislation (BSL) is a law passed by a legislative body in regards to a specific breed of domesticated animals.

These laws are most commonly known as Pit Bull Bans, though pit bulls are not the only dogs affected.

I have a three-year-old American Staffordshire Terrier, commonly known as a pit bull terrier. Her name is Mimi and since my husband and I got her, she has changed the way I feel about breeds labeled as vicious.

Mimi has had two litters of pups and was a wonderful mother. She loves our cat, our other dog and our families. She has amazed me with how good she is with children. I have a two-year-old niece and watched her when she was a baby sometimes; Mimi was always right there beside her, watching and protecting.

The best thing I ever saw was one time when I had my niece sitting on the floor and Mimi kept crawling up to her really slowly, she’d lick my niece’s toes until she giggled, then Mimi would back away fast. Once my niece’s laughter subsided, Mimi would do it all over again. Those two had a great time and I was laughing right along with my niece after awhile.

Great memories like that are why it breaks my heart to hear about wonderful family pets being taken away because their breed has been labeled vicious by lawmakers who, for the most part, are unable to even successfully identify the breeds they ban from their cities.

There is no pit bull breed. The way most lawmakers identify the breeds considered as pit bulls is by physical characteristics.

When was the last time it was okay for someone to judge anyone else’s character based on what they look like?

There are numerous dog breeds people call pit bulls that are a breed all their own, with temperaments all their own. To name a few there are the American Pit Bull Terrier, the American Bull Dog, the Presa Canario, the Cane Coro, the Bull Terrier, the Boxer, the Dogo Argentino, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the Bullmastiff, the Olde English Bull Dogge and the Alapaha Blue Blood Bull Dog. There are so many breeds that are lumped into the category of pit bull, which is then lumped into the arbitrary category of vicious dogs.

When a child acts up or harms someone, people look at the parents and the situation the child came from. There is no reason not to do this with dogs. The owner makes the dog. There is no scientific proof, as the American Kennel Club will point out, that breed can predetermine temperament.

It’s not just “pit bull” dogs that are being euthanized for no other reason than what they look like. Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers and German Shepards are just a few other breeds that some bad owners somewhere down the line have mistreated and mishandled causing them to be labeled vicious by the law.

Maybe I just have an affinity for the “vicious breeds,” but I believe that any dog can be good when it’s loved and cared for in the right environment. Most of us don’t believe man is inherently evil, so why do we believe that about man’s best friend?

Riddle me that.