I'm a dog. And in case you forgot, I'm a pit bull. I'm probably (no exaggeration) one of the sweetest most friendly dogs you will ever meet. I get along great with dogs of every age and size. When dogs are aggressive with me, I don't respond. I just back off a little and hope they'll calm down. I always try again to make them my friend.
It's true, if you're wearing a hat or are entering one of the homes in my neighborhood and I don't recognize you, I might bark at you. I won't attack. I just want to be sure who you are and maybe scare you off if you're up to no good. Once you take off your hat, I'll come over and lick your face (or at least I'll try). If you're a smoker and you try to pet me, I'll probably back off quickly. It's not because I don't like you. It's because I have a sensitive nose. I'm always sniffing, and I don't like smoke. But I won't be mean to you. I'll still wag my tail - just from a distance. I'll admit that I'm not fond of the mailman or UPS man (or the garbage man for that matter!). They come to our house every day, dropping things off and picking things up, but they always leave in a hurry. They never stay to chat. I bark at them. I'm not sure what they're up to, and I just want to keep my people safe. I only bark though, I would never attack. I don't even growl. I just want to let them know I know what they're up to!
But I'm a pit bull. And because of that, no matter what I say and no matter how good of a girl I am, people think I should be outlawed and put down. Recently, the State of Maryland (where I'm originally from), ruled that pit bulls and pit bull crosses are inherently "dangerous." Alicia read a blog about it that was posted on the WTOP blog. She agreed with everything the poster said.
Then she read the comments. And she couldn't disagree more with some of the heartless things that people were saying. She told me all about the people who said that all pit bulls should be killed because they have been bred for ill pursuits. Have they ever met me? They also said that pit bull owners only get pit bulls to put out a certain image. Just what image are Matt and Alicia trying to project?
I'm going to guess that they haven't met me. I'd love to meet them though. And show them what a loving and good girl I am. I'd like to change their minds.
One of the comments says something really interesting, I think: that as soon as a dog breed is banned, it acquires a reputation for being the sort of dog that "the criminal element" (or something like that) wants to have as a status symbol. So, banning a breed becomes actively counterproductive...in sort of the same way as banning a book.
ReplyDelete(disclosure: one of my best dogfriends is a German Shepherd, also a much-maligned breed!)