Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby! 🙂

I really only want to follow-up with Justice For Putz.

People have different ideas about whether dogs are supposed to provide protection or not.  Personally I don’t want my dog putting him/herself in harm’s way for me.   My dogs are like my children and I would protect my children with my life.  I try really hard to let my dogs know that I can take care of myself and in turn take care of them.  That is the reason we train with other people and dogs as frequently as we can.

But I can’t get inside my dog’s mind to know what they are thinking and I can’t predict with 100% accuracy how my dog will react in any given situation.  I’d like to think neither one of my dogs would EVER bite, but they are dogs and I don’t know.  Which is why we take precautions with our dogs around other people, especially children.    We also try and educate other people about how to treat our dogs.

I find it sad that because a dog bites, it is immediately the dog’s fault.  My aunt and uncle had a dog once, Scooter who jumped their fence and bit a child.  I don’t know all of the reasonings for their decision (if the law was involved or not) but they decided to euthanize Scooter.  It broke my heart when I found out, because Scooter was a great dog.

After Scooter had been put down, my aunt and uncle found out that the child who had been bitten had been using a sling shot and shooting marbles at Scooter.  One day Scooter had enough and stuck up for himself and he lost his life because of it.

Sadly Scooter and Putz aren’t the only stories about dog’s being wrongfully euthanized.

I wonder if Putz had been a Labrador or a different breed of dog if the outcome would have been the same?  2 Brown Dawgs left a comment about another pitbull who did nothing, and was still euthanized.

It concerns me, because right now the focus is on pitbulls, because a certain population of people have used the dogs wrongly.  But that focus can change.  When I was a kid I remember my father telling me how vicious Doberman Pinschers were, German Shepherds were also considered a “dangerous” breed, but we all know that isn’t the case.

We need to take action now and stop this breed specific crusade, because if we don’t we can’t be sure it won’t be our dog’s breed that’s next.

Book update, my book has 6,231 words.

Justice For Putz

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I came across a disturbing article on Facebook today.

Thanks to Bringing Up Bella for posting this article about a pitbull that was put to sleep by the Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

Putz, the dog was defending his mistress from her ex-husband.  The ex-husband had already kicked Putz and had rolled up his fist in order to hit his ex-wife when Putz intervened, biting the man on the wrist.

Putz was then impounded and Minneapolis Animal Care and Control assessed Putz and deemed him dangerous and suggested he not be returned to his owner.

An animal rights group became involved and offered to have Putz sent to an animal sanctuary where Putz could live his life without the possibility of being re-homed. Despite their best efforts the judge involved in  the case disregarded the offer and ordered Putz be put to death.  Putz was euthanized on Saturday.

I don’t think I have the words to express the outrage I feel at this miscarriage of justice.  A dog was protecting his mistress from harm, had he been a truly vicious dog (as MACC said) this dog could have done a lot of damage to the ex-husband, instead he simply bit him on the wrist preventing serious harm to his mistress and for his loyalty and love, he was murdered.   Surprisingly the ex-husband’s record of domestic violence wasn’t taken into consideration.

I fully believe most dogs don’t bite without provocation and in an instance of a dog bite all circumstances should be taken into consideration.  I can’t believe in this day and age stuff like this still takes place.

It scares me to think that my dog could be killed just for protecting me.  What scares me even more is I don’t know what to do to stop this Salem Witch mentality.

I will start by signing the petition to bring justice for Putz, if you’re interested you can find the petition here.

I will also do some research and see if I can find out the name of the judge who ruled on the case and drop him/her a line with my thoughts.  I do know if I lived in Minneapolis I would probably be picketing somewhere.

Book Update: My book has 5,249 words.

Blog The Change, BE The Change

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I almost forgot about Blog The Change.

At least three times this past week I’ve gasped in horror and said, “Oh My God, I forgot Blog The Change!  Wait a minute, what’s the date?  Oh, ok I have time.”

Then I thought, what the hell am I going to write about?  After mulling it over in my mind and reading one too many facebook/internet articles about animal cruelty, I decided I would write about harsher penalties for animal neglecters and abusers.

One of my friends lives in TN, you may remember her.  She wrote to me asking about helping with her new dog, Ginger and the issues they were having with their current dog, Candy. (If you missed it, you can find it here.)  Well guess what?  A puppy showed up on her deck on Friday.

But that isn’t what this post is about.  Once her comment was up a number of other comments followed.  Apparently she thinks this may be one of her neighbor’s dogs, because he has a slew of them and keeps them all outside, all of the time.  Even in horrible weather, his attitude is ‘they have a dog house, they can use it.’

That statement alone could send me off on a long tangent, but there’s more.  What I said was, “I hate people like your neighbor.”

Then someone else commented with, “Me too, Jodi.  Cruel and Inhumane.”

To which I responded, “Sometimes I think people should have to pass tests to have pets, and children too.”

Well here’s the crux of it and what I was trying to get to.  While the whole idea of someone passing a test to have a pet or a child is ludicrous, and would really give entirely too much power to a government with too much power already, I really believe if we had stronger penalties for cruelty and neglect, perhaps and it is a BIG PERHAPS.  Perhaps, people would think twice before committing crimes of this nature.

IMO, criminals have too many ‘rights.’ Listen, if you committed a crime, you lose your rights.  I’m sorry.  Yes you have a right to an attorney, and a fair trial, but just how do you figure you’re entitled to have a gym in prison and cable tv?

What has happened to society?  Each generation seems to become more and more perverse.  Where is the shame and embarrassment of doing something you know is wrong?  Once upon a time I was terrified of my father.  All he had to say was, “I have a bone to pick with you” and I would just about wet my pants.  Did he ever hit me?  No.  He didn’t have to.

Once upon a time people were embarrassed to have spent time in jail, now they wear it like a badge of honor.  WTF?  Really, what have we come to?

Personally I would love to see us go back to the stockades in the center of town.  Yes, even for the horrible crimes.  Before you go to prison, spend a day and night in the stockade in the center of town.  Make sure to leave boxes and boxes of rotten tomatoes nearby, so people can walk by and pitch one at em.  Of course you would need to make sure to have a guard posted because there would certainly be at least one that would pitch a rock.  (Then they would have to go in the stockade alongside the criminal.)

Stop.  Give me a minute to climb down off this soap box, I feel like this post has gotten off track.

I think there should be stronger penalties for people who abuse children, animals and the elderly.  I also think our prisons and jails should concentrate less on the creature comforts of prisoners and more on the idea that these people are being punished.

I would like to see this issue become a federal matter and not one based on a state’s opinion.  There are too many states where animals are abused and neglected with little to no punishment.

Let’s take a stand!  I am starting with my State Representatives, and asking where and how to start.

Whose with me? Will you Be The Change?

My book (which I haven’t worked on yet today) has 1001 words.

This is the Blog The Change For Animals Blog hop.  You can get your code here.

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