Banning One Breed of Dog Will Not Solve Problem

I found this article very interesting and on a subject I've never written about. This article is in the New West Boise.

In Ontario, we have to tag our cats and bylaw prevents them from roaming. If they happen to venture off your property, the owner is in violation although I've never heard of anyone being issued a fine.

Banning One Breed of Dog Will Not Solve Problem
By Dawn Capp, Guest Writer, 4-03-07

I’m writing to respond to Cari Elmore’s drive to have pit bulls banned from the city because, sadly, her beloved cat was attacked by a pit bull. It’s always hard to lose a pet that’s part of one’s family, or to watch it suffer. My own 45-pound pit bull, a certified service dog, was mauled in our own backyard by a neighbor’s cat that jumped the fence. The cat escaped unharmed.

After all, my dog, Tauri, has grown up with cats and adores our own black kitty, Jax. The story of Tauri being mauled by a loose cat made local and national news. Many laughed at the pit bull, who has never harmed a creature in her seven years of life, being viciously attacked by a cat, yet no one laughs when a pit bull attacks another animal.

Breed discrimination, it is quite apparent, runs rampant through communities.

Elmore believes that because her cat weighed as much as a small child that a child may be the next victim.

Certainly all animals, cats and dogs alike, are capable of harming a small child. In fact, my 45-pound pit bull weighs more that Elmore’s unfortunate cat, and yet I wonder how many people worry that a cat will jump into their backyard and attack their child.

These types of attacks happen quite frequently as it turns out. As a child, my good friend went into the garage to see what her dad was working on and a cat jumped from the rafters and attacked her. Just recently, in Fairfield, Conn., a crazy cat named Lewis made news when he terrorized residents.

Laws should focus on owner responsibiilty and individual animal temperaments, regardless of breed.

In Ontario, Canada, a German Sheperd and boxer-husky mix killed a pit bull that was also someone’s beloved pet. Within minutes of the attack, the unfortunate pit bull, Dayton, lay dying in the street, his intestines spilling onto the snow.

No one called for a ban on German Shepherds, boxers, and huskies, even though, surely, if these two dogs could so easily kill a pit bull then they could certain kill a child.

All dogs and all cats have the potential to be dangerous. Trying to exterminate one breed of dog will do nothing to solve the problem of dangerous animals, as Tauri and Dayton have learned first hand.