I was able to watch a show by dog trainer Cesar Millan on pit bulls. He made cogent arguments that they be accepted into society and went from bad neighborhoods where people make the dogs fight each other to shelters who rehabilitate these dogs and breed others to be family pets.
On this journey he personally helped rehabilitate one dog and ended up in Washington, D.C. to talk to his representative. Congratulations, Cesar! I will fight with you against breed ban legislation and laws.
A few months ago I tried to find a place for us to live. I told them we have a dog. She’s an 11.5 year-old Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, 34 lbs. I was immediately told that German Shepherds are on the breed ban list. The woman wouldn’t listen as I said she was not a German Shepherd. There was no way I was going to convince her that breed ban lists are wrong, she didn’t know my dog and had never even seen the property she was selling. I got rid of her in a heartbeat.
I did call the property after sending management a photo of our our old hip-less wonder dog belly-up on our sofa. It demonstrated she is not a German Shepherd. I’ve two problems with this. The manager said they would “consider” our dog. I said that we would not consider them. The other is that in order to get in I denigrated German Shepherds who are great dogs, and so are American Staffordshire Terriers.
As a kid I was bitten in the butt by two German Shepherds but am not afraid of them. I’ve only known the nicest of Pit terriers. If I was putting on my shoes on the front stoop Dolly would run out her door and come and lick and hug me. What a sweetie. Years ago I met with the staff of the San Francisco SPCA. They renamed this dog the St. Francis Terrier. Seeing as I went to a Franciscan school, I thought that appropriate.
Thank you, Cesar, for bringing this issue to the table. My focus for the past 20 years has been responsible pet ownership. I agree that this responsibility plus activism is needed for all dogs who are on the breed ban lists. Thanks, Dee
Cooking with Dee 