Replies

>> Why did you include me on this comment. I hadn’t posted anything <<

Why? Because it is not uncommon to send a regular FR participant who has similar interests a “heads-up” note just to make sure he/she/they perceives what is being discussed, although it is a response primarily to the comment of someone else. The note was not sent to you at all in the sense of criticizing you or your stance, only that of the primary addressee.

Perhaps you would have seen my response anyway, but I was just making sure you did. If you prefer that I not be so presumptuous, just say so, and I will not attempt to draw your attention. In this case, my argument (in the debate sense) was a little different approach than most people commonly take, and I thought you might take note of that tack in maneuvering troubled waters.

The statistics can be a bit cold from the emotional point of view, but so also can be the rational consequences. Too many dog-lovers pitch their argument on a misplaced compassion or false morality about their pet, or an animal which is their source of income. In fact, my grandpa took very good care of his cows, of their health and welfare. He milked them by hand, and helped them through the pain of delivering their calves; but when one dried up and could no longer provide milk to be sold, it was the same hand that drew the sharp knife across the animal’s throat, that cut up its body into pot roasts and steaks, and held the fork that lifted a succulent piece of beef (or pork, or chicken, or venison) to his mouth for daily sustenance.

A dog is just that. You do not need to get so affectionate about one that you can’t put one away if it is chronically ill, or has a temperament that you cannot rely on. If you are not going to use a pit bull to kill off dangerous predators, to to fight them in a cruel sport, then there is no reason to have one or to defend them as a pet. In fact, if you want a pet, it is just as easy and makes a lot more sense to settle one’s affection on a dog that is suitable, likeable, trainable, and trustworthy around oneself and others, particularly children.

I see the defense of keeping a pit bull type as a pet, or even as a brute to scare off unwanted visitors, wholly irrational and oppositionally defiant to common sense.