A Plea for Compassion

Jacqueline Fairbrass walking 'Eddy' on Rockaway Beach. Eddy, an abandoned pit bull rescued by Jacqueline and her husband, is a loving, intelligent, affectionate dog! In Ontario he would be euthanized because of his breed. Support Ontario Bill 16 on February 23! Support compassion every day!

I ask you to remember the words of Mahatma Ghandi, ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated‘.

Thousands of healthy, innocent, blameless dogs that have been classified as pit bulls are facing homelessness or death because of Ontario’s ban on pit bulls. ‘Pit bull-like’ is an ambiguous term, open to abuse and questionable interpretation. A pit bull may be any of several breeds of dogs whose origin can be traced back to a bull-dog terrier mix. That said, the breed of an animal does not determine its temperament; a dog’s behaviour is reflective of how it is raised and treated. Pit bull breeds have become famous for their roles as soldiers, police dogs, search and rescue dogs, actors, television personalities, seeing-eye dogs and celebrity pets.

An electronic search of newspaper articles by Dr. Malathi Raghavan, DVM, PhD, found that pit bulls were not responsible for 1 of 28 (3.6%) dog bite-related fatalities reported in Canada from 1990 through 2007. ( Raghavan, Malathi (June 2008). “Fatal dog attacks in Canada, 1990–2007”. The Canadian Veterinary Journal (La Revue vétérinaire canadienne) 49 (6): 577–581. PMC 2387261. PMID 18624067.) The study also notes that ‘A higher proportion of sled dogs and, possibly, mixed-breed dogs in Canada than in the United States caused fatalities, as did multiple dogs rather than single dogs. Free-roaming dog packs, reported only from rural communities, caused most on-reserve fatalities‘.

In a world where we fight to prevent the endangerment of undomesticated species it is inconceivable to encourage the wiping out of a domesticated species: one of man’s best friends. Please do the right thing and support Ontario Bill 16 on February 23rd. Thank you.

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3 Comments

  1. Roger A. Briggs on February 21, 2012 at 11:33 am

    A few years ago, the ‘maligned’ breed was Rottweiler, before that it was the Doberman and way back when I was a kid I remember it was the German Shepherd. I don’t know who it is that comes up with these horror stories concerning a particular breed of dog…. as you say, their temperament is dependent on the environment that the particular dog is raised in. Even a miniature Poodle can be vicious if raised to be so. It’s vicious people that turn dogs vicious. )o;



    • Jacqueline on February 21, 2012 at 11:38 am

      Thank you for sharing Roger. I agree whole-heartedly. Even the bloodhound had a bad rep for a while!