[RP TownTalk] Dog Issue

[Euniverz]

I couldn't tell if I sent this to the right email address, so this might be the second time it goes to the list...





In the 80s when I was a WashPost reporter in "PeeGee County," I had the
ruesome task of writing news articles about small children being bitten --
epeatedly -- by pit bulls. Have you ever had a conversation with a parent
hose small child has been malled by a dog? A number of  children died, not
ust in this county but all around this region. Vice President Biden
esterday spoke of elementary children being "riddled with bullets." Well,
hat is pretty-much what those assault weapon dogs do.

 
"PeeGee County".  Ouch.  One of those thinly veiled euphemisms for the county when it was a scary, high crime, drug riddled place?  Isn't that the euphemism that one is practically forbidden to use "in polite company" around here?  When used in the context quoted above, coupled with the (false) implication that children have died in this county as a result of a particular breed of dog supposedly only owned by those bad "PeeGee County" residents, it is very easy to raise the irrational fear level into the red zone.  Unnecessarily.  
 
If one allows one's dog to do something bad and hurts someone, we already have laws that deal with that sort of thing, regardless of the breed, and they're pretty good laws.  The more topical questions are, for me at least, have you ever had a conversation with a dog owner whose dog was taken away simply because of what it looked like?  Simply because people with opinions think its ok to compare their benign family pet to an assault weapon?  There is a kind of "-ism" that people feel when they are unfairly vilified because of the dog they own, especially when that dog is an innocent, treasured family member.  I have had those conversations with dog owners.  Too often.  Many times, after those dogs are seized and ultimately killed simply for looking a certain way, those dog owners are never, ever the same. 
 
And seizing and killing innocent dogs has been proven to be ineffective in keeping the public safe.  In this county particularly.
 
I would never want to do that to my neighbor.  I would hope my neighbor would never want to do that to me. 
 
Adrianne Lefkowitz, 
Madison Street
 
Executive Director
Maryland Dog Federation 
marylanddogfederation at yahoo.com 
www.marylanddogfederation.com 
Concerned friends of man's best friend



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