The Grace of God or Dog??

There is a very small amount of things that annoy me away from work. One of them is when people try to say that something wouldn't have happened without God. Now, I'm not a religious person in many ways. I don't subscribe to a certain thought about what deity represents good or which one represents bad. I know there's a good and bad for every situation and I try to stay on the good side. This being said, I don't necessarily believe in deities or stories handed down for thousands of years.

But here's what gets me. Recently I've started reading a lot of news stories on the internet from a few of the major cities. I'm a dog lover, I grew up with Labrador's, cocker spaniels, and we even had an American Bulldog which is one of the loving-est dogs but he could be angry if someone was doing something they shouldn't be. I don't want to go into the full story of the breed but there is some pitbull in the bloodline somewhere. So when I see another story about a pitbull attacking or someone trying to get the breed banned I read it.

I can understand why people would target pitbulls. They have a slight reputation for being very mean dogs. Then again, I've seen smaller and bigger dogs that can be just as mean. The pitbull just has the jaw power to actually break your bones.

Now, in this news story a 3 year old pitbull ran into a neighbor's yard, through their locked screen door, and clamped onto the face of an 11 year old labrador. The lady that owned the labrador, and her fiance, grabbed a couple wooden tv dinner tables and swatted at the pitbull. When that didn't work the lady grabbed her dog and started pulling on him and shaking him. Then By the Grace of God... the pitbull let go.

After the attack the owner did the right thing. He put the dog down. The dog attacked unprovoked and it could do it again. Next time it could be a child or another dog or anyone. Now the lady is on a mission to make the attack rate drop from 3 attacks to 1 or 2. (Note: The attack rate is currently 3. Which means if a dog violently attacks anything 3 times it's put to sleep.) She's even commented that she will focus on pitbulls if she has to.

Now here's my problem with all of this.

1. The pitbull's owner was an idiot for letting the dog out without it being on a leash or having a muzzle on.


2. The lady and her fiance swatted at the pitbull. In that case, you don't swat, you bash that thing over the head. There might be a life on the line.


3. Some people think they have to try and change the world because their world got rocked a little. I won't disagree with changing the violent attack laws but I'd suggest that the situations are looked at a little closer not the breed. Why jump on the bandwagon and get breed specific? Dogs will act the way they are trained. If it grows up loved, it will be loving. If it's brought up to protect and be angry, then it will protect and be angry.


4. Last thing you really want to do when your dog is clamped down by a bigger more powerful dog? Grab it and start pulling on it and shaking it. Your making the wounds bigger, deeper and worse.


5. God had nothing to do with the other dog letting go. You somehow got the dog to let go. Take credit for your actions.
   

Everyone has their own beliefs. I won't sit here and put them down for the simple reason that everyone needs something to believe in to belong. It's what keeps a lot of people going. So believe what you want to believe until it comes to a society as a whole.

At that point, you should really think about what your trying to do or say because someone will have the exact opposite belief and call you out on it.

Breed specific legislation is something we destroyed for humans a long time ago.