The War on Dogs
historytoday.com
historytoday.com
Fast forward a little bit. He's incredible. Outgoing, super intelligent, loyal, goofy, amazing with kids. Does still sometimes bark at strangers if startled, but never bites (even when other dogs have drawn blood).
He's an integral part of the family, and just about the best thing that ever happened to me. Healthy now, and seems to be aware he's got it pretty darn good these days. I can't imagine if it had gone the other way.
Then & Now: https://imgur.com/a/35AvfBD
Not disputing the tragedy of overpopulation in parts of the world. Not even trying to encourage everyone to go out and adopt a dog. Just wanted to share this experience as a reminder each little guy has their own individual story, and when contemplating large-scale decisions it's important to retain empathy and cognizance of the implications.
I don't know if I got lucky or what. I walked in, she was about the 6th or 8th cell, and I knew I was keeping her as soon as we met.
Anyway, that's two data points. Adopting dogs from the shelter is wonderful.
1 point by johnea 10 minutes ago | prev | next | edit | delete [–]
I'm all for the cull.
Absentee/incompetent owners are overwhelming the ability to control the noise, agression and dog shit everywhere that's resulted from treating a living entity like a video game console.
It's not the dog's resoponsibility to sooth neurotic primates.
The reason they "love you so much" is because they were stolen from their actual mother, and handed to a primate before they were old enough to remmeber their actual parent.
The entire phenomenon of pet ownership is basically infant kidnapping...
I'm also shocked at the complete disregard some people have for their pets. Like moving overseas and giving up their dog. "Didn't you have that dog since it was a puppy?" "yes, but we want to move" "you can take a dog with you" "It's too expensive" I've moved my cats between continents 4 times so I know it adds up but it's not insurmountable for anyone with a tech salary "wait, what do your kids think about this?" "oh they're pretty upset :shrug I guess we'll get another one". Well if you think thats OK then that's also the end of our friendship.
I did notice when I lived in the US that American's seem to treat their cats and dogs a bit better on average. More like family members. Here there's too much of a "farm dog" mentality, which is fine, maybe, when it applies to actual working dogs, but not to pets.
History repeats itself
> The British pet massacre was an event in the United Kingdom in 1939 in which over 750,000 pets were killed in preparation for food shortages during World War II.
> Estimates say that over 750,000 pets were killed over the course of the event. Many pet owners, after getting over the fear of bombings and lack of food, regretted killing their pets and blamed the government for starting the hysteria.
... apart from the bit where it didn't actually repeat itself? There didn't end up being another massacre and the potential for it had absolutely jackshit to do with war and food shortages.
Their bite force is about 235 psi and some can pull over 3000 lbs.
It's the most abandoned breed and the one with most safety incidents.
So:
- keeping a pit bull on leash doesn't make a difference
- once it's aggravated you cannot control it anymore
- nobody actually needs a pit bull
- it can disfigure or kill a person or animal at any moment: you, your family, your neighbors, their pets, dog sitter, etc.
No other internet trick works on them, they've specifically been bred to bite and bite hard.
Even if they're not killed, the strays have fight for survival on their own. Even in developed countries like the US, there are more dogs that need to be adopted than people to adopt them, so many are left in shelters and some are euthanized because the shelters don't have enough resources to care for them.
The common argument seems to be neuter and spay. See https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/yr20xj/how_do_we_add...
It means it lives in a confined space not meant for a dog.
Dogs are for farms not cities.
Plus dog walks aren't just for the benefit of the dog.
A dog that loves your house is like the old guy in Shawshank Redemption that only has a life within the jail.
If the dog was intelligent, would it still protect you from intruders? And if it didn't, would you still keep it around?
If the dog was intelligent and it was truly part of your family, would you pay for its college tuition? Or do things you would do with an adopted member of your family like inheriting your house? Or it would be more like a slave that is only there to defend you?
So, in the end, it is all just abuse. You kidnap an animal, then restrain it, neuter it so it cannot be aggressive, discipline it to adapt to an unreasonable and unnatural standard of cleanliness and behavior, etc.
Your dog likes you because you took away its family and essentially marginalized it so that it is forced to bond only with you. And also because of artificial selection for those traits. If it was aware that it was kidnapped and forcibly sterilized it would never like you. You are just abusing a lesser form of intelligence.
A dog has to be among their own species and have a dog life. Cover large areas, sniff around, spread their scent, interact with other dogs, etc.
In a human house, living in isolation among humans that have unreasonable expectations, a dog life simply sucks.
Absentee/incompetent owners are overwhelming the ability to control the noise, agression and dog shit everywhere that's resulted from treating a living entity like a video game console.
It's not the dog's resoponsibility to sooth neurotic primates.
The reason they "love you so much" is because they were stolen from their actual mother, and handed to a primate before they were old enough to remmeber their actual parent.
The entire phenomenon of pet ownership is basically infant kidnapping...