I need to start this post by stating unequivocally that I saddened and horrified every time a human is attacked by a dog. It is frightening to think of man’s best friend turning against humans. Any dog. Any time.
I have no issue with a day to recognize and mourn the victims of dog bite fatalities. DOG bite fatalities. Not pit bull terrier type dog fatalities. To single out a group of dogs and ignore all other breeds is ridiculous. Think about it…you are telling families across the country that unless their loved one was mauled or killed by a pit bull type dog, the death doesn’t matter and doesn’t count. How horrific is that?
The title of a press release from this morning is
Pit Bull Crisis Prompts Support Groups to Declare October 24th National Pit Bull Victim Awareness Day
The press release is rife with poorly researched data, hysteria and the outright lies of Merritt Clifton, Colleen Lynn and the other pro breed discrimination groups. Complete with graphs that mean absolutely nothing.
Although Mr. Clifton’s data is often used in breed discriminatory articles and opinion pieces, the fact is that the data is mined from media sources. This is not peer-reviewed research, with raw data available for anyone who wants to look at the methodology. No…it is data that Clifton spouts as gospel, with nothing to back it up or prove his contentions. With one breath he says that pit bull type dogs account for 5% of the dogs in this country….and then he offers statistics that state that pits are being grossly over-bred by backyard breeders. The facts he uses and that he feeds to DogsBite.org actually contradict each other. Why then do these charlatans have any traction with the media at all? ‘
Well the answer today is that they have joined forces with PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Just adding the name PETA to the press release gives them a certain level of credibility to the media and the country at large.
It is no secret that PETA is anti-pit. Heck, they tried to make sure the best dog I’ve even known was euthanized with no assessment. Their kill numbers are appalling. Their stance that pits need to be PTS because otherwise they might be abused is obscene. They have actually worked against shelters and communities trying to achieve No-Kill. But they do have a certain standing in the Animal Welfare community.
I just want to ask Ingrid Newkirk what in the heck PETA is getting out of this partnership? Pardon the expression (although it is apt in this case), but what dog do they have in this fight? Why would they ally themselves with groups of misinformed extremists armed with bogus data?
Why am I writing this post? It is certainly not to minimize the sense of loss families feel when a loved one dies in this horrific manner. It is to make sure people realize that the name PETA does NOT make these groups any more credible. All it does is help show the world what PETA has become….a killing machine. Killing a dog because of how he looks is not ethical. Judging a dog by appearance not behavior isn’t animal welfare. And depriving an animal of a loving home is certainly not Animal Rights.
Shame on you PETA. Your public stance on companion animals is bad enough…but now you’ve joined forces with an elite society of idiots and misled, mourning families. Good job……
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