A lot of laws are being mandated to control our dogs...but are they good laws or something else?
For those of you who read this topic I'm sure you've figured out that I don’t usually write all nice and sweet and fluffy things about dogs. This is one of those articles that isn't sweet and fluffy. It's what is happening in our society in the world of dogs. The politics of owning a dog nowadays isn't cute or fluffy by any stretch of the imagination.
The Band Aid
I remember growing up when people took responsibility for their actions but apparently the government feels they need to mandate everything today rather than hold people accountable. The fight for animal welfare started as a noble fight but has degenerated into opposing sides of animal rights versus animal welfare and it is appearing more and more like it isn't about animals at all. Dogs seem to be at the top of the hit list with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) leading the way. By banning breeds as many European countries do, we're only falling into the trap of thinking by putting this bandaid on things our problems will go away. Banning a breed does nothing more than drive the criminals who abuse and use these breeds to choose yet another, and another and another until eventually we have no more breeds left. Therein lays the crux of the problem I think.
The Problem
The problem is a human one not a dog one although it is always the animals who pay the price for human actions. One faction of the animal fight thinks the solution to world peace and harmony is to free all animals and that freedom means killing them because then they are truly free. That sounds rather harsh and violent to me, so how does more violence end violence? It doesn't and that is just stupid.
Another faction has sat by and watched and now are scrambling to try and catch up and fix things but aren't sure how or where to start. The problem is, the politicians care about votes so they are readily grasping at the straws of Breed Specific Legislation to control so-called "vicious" dogs. Dangerous dog laws really address the owners as they should so focusing on those makes far more sense but since when do politicians care about making sense?
The factions wanting all domestic animal ownership ended are in control and are doing a great job of "educating" our children and our college students into believing their rhetoric. We have a lot of propaganda and financing to fight to end all this nonsense. Maybe it's just using plain common sense again.
The Solution
I think a first step is to educate. Educate people about what it means to own a dog. Educate at the nursery school level if we must.
Secondly that we need to take responsibility for our own actions. When we decide to own and bring home a dog it is our responsibility to know how to take care of a dog, the nature of a dog, and how train our dog to be a good canine citizen. If we'd all do that we'd have no need for stupid laws that want to mandate away our rights as US citizens such as mandatory spaying or neutering and microchipping.
We'd have no need for politicians wanting to band aid a human social problem with Breed Specific Legislation. We'd have no need for factions wanting to destroy animals to "free" them. But I must be thinking of Utopia or maybe heaven, because everyone would rather have the government doing their thinking for them these days it seems. Maybe I am just living in the wrong era.
