Pit Bulls, Pearls and Small Possibilities for Change

Melanie McCoy is a true Pit Bull lover and a canine advocate of the first order. She apparently came across a post on this blog, and it served as fodder for her column in the Southeast Missourian:

The vast numbers of Pit Bulls dying in shelters are healthy 14-18 month old dogs that come in with little or no training. The majority are owned by young adults that purchased them from young adult breeders. Neither of these parties realistically consider the responsibility required to care for an adult Pit Bull. They do not look any further than the image they portray by being a "pit bull breeder" or a "pitbull owner". When these dogs reach adulthood, and the peak of their strength, these young owners find they can no longer deal with the dog. It might surprise you how many of these dogs are relinquished by the parents of "owners" that have no comprehension of how long a dog's life span really is.

The older dogs that turn up in the shelters tend to be females that have been repeatedly bred. They are no longer pretty due to the sagginess associated with nursing numerous litters of puppies. The last group tends to be adult males that have not received the proper socialization. These dogs are usually too scary for most pet owners to even consider.

Normally these dogs have been owned by the very people that profess to have such a love for the breed. When I get called to appear before city council meetings where breed bans or restrictions are being considered, it is because someone professing to love the breed has not shown the proper degree of responsibility.

The analogy of Pits in the River has given me a different perspective on a message I have been trying to express for many years. The uneducated, unchecked breeding, breed bans and the subsequent death of millions of Pit Bulls a year is due to the irresponsibility of owners. How many negative headlines do we need to see before we start to deal with the actual problem surrounding not only this breed, but every dog that becomes popularized because of image? These dogs are literally being loved to death.

Read the whole thing.

Sometime change starts as small as this -- a pearl that grows from a very small but irritating piece of sand.

Mostly it doesn't of course.

Mostly the sand is jettisoned out with the next siphon of the clam or oyster.

But if a pearl ever does form, it is always due to some type of irritation.

Comfort and acceptance do not a pearl make.


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