It’s Raining Cats and Dogs – One
Hot Button Alert: This is when we find out how many people are reading this column.
I love my dogs and they love me. I have a friend whose standoffish cats actually like me. I used to have a gerbil, but my beloved cat Pinkle Purr ate it. Pets can be wonderful companions for lots of reasons.
But, this country is filled with surplus dogs and cats.
The Humane Society in Gillette takes in these surplus critters and puts them back out for adoption. [Side Note: When I campaigned for a city ordinance requiring pet owners to clean up the poop and leash the dogs in city parks, who opposed my efforts? Can you believe it: The Humane Society. They turned out in force to argue that the rules I championed would discourage people from adopting stray pets. The craven City Council reversed its position after two readings and canceled the ordinance.]
The Humane Society in Casper runs photo ads regularly. With alarming frequency they offer pit bulls for adoption. These are dogs which were abandoned by someone with enough intelligence to recognize the incredible risk the dog posed to their children, babies and adults. Offering untrained, unsocialized pit bulls for adoption to untrained softhearted people is just plain stupidly irresponsible. Why not offer a free rattlesnake or rabid skunk as a bonus?
There are people who buy pedigreed pit bulls and train and socialize them to a point that maybe they are not dangerous, at least not dangerous to adults. We might give them some credit, although one might ask “why take the chance that your pet will eat your grand daughter?” But dumping them on the public?
Pit bulls have no place in our society. They are bred to kill. They are poor at distinguishing legitimate kill targets from people and their pets. Many cities ban them. It tells us a lot about how divorced The Humane Society is from rationality that they continue to offer pit bulls to innocent families. I wonder what kind of insurance they carry?
Wait a minute, say readers: didn’t you mention cats at the beginning of this blog?
Well, yes I did. More to come later.