Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Big Dog Discrimination

I'm a country dog. I was born a country dog in Virginia. I'm still a country dog here in Missouri. I figure I'll go to the rainbow bridge a country dog. Other than vacations, I've never been in a city (I don't count small towns where the vet's office always is) and these days I figure I'm awfully lucky. I have a huge fenced yard of about about an acre to play in and patrol and nobody has ever said a word about my size. I guess I forgot to say I'm a big country dog. Since I weigh about 70 pounds, by some standards I'm a very big dog.

At least I'd say so after hearing about New York City. Did you know that New York City just enacted a new policy about the size of dogs. Effective this past May, people living in public housing can't have a dog that weighs more than 25 pounds. People are having to find new housing or surrender their dogs to shelters. There are over 175,000 public housing units in New York City.

Now, I guess I understand that landlords anywhere can decide if pets are allowed to live in their property, as well as how big those pets can be. I mean, this is America (you know what I mean.) But what I heard is that this was a move by New York City to target what they call dangerous dogs. Yeah, you know, pit bulls, dobermans and rottweilers.

Dangerous dogs. I've got news for New York City. I've met some dogs under 25 pounds who were dog gone dangerous. It doesn't have to do with the breed of the dog. It's the owner of the dog. It's the dog's people. How many ways can I say this? If people shirk their responsibility to socialize and train their dogs, it's the dogs who suffer. Always. It's not their fault and it has nothing to do with their breed. How many dogs will have to die in a shelter because New York City public housing officials don't know the difference between a pit bull, doberman, rottweiler and a dangerous dog.

Besides, I bet New York City is full of dangerous people. A lot more dangerous people than dangerous dogs. And I think some of them are making the rules for public housing.

Head of Security, For Love of a Dog

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