My 100th Blog...

     For the second time in a week I called in to a radio talk show. The poll question of the day was, "Do you think pitbulls should be banned?" The reason for this topic of discussion was the fact that an eleven year old boy is in hospital with 100 stitches after being attacked by a pitbull in a Surrey (what are the odds?) elementary school playground. Fortunately a neighbour grabbed a baseball bat and ran to the school, where he struck the dog and stopped the attack, cornering the dog until police arrived. Police had to use a dog pole to secure two pitbulls.

     My comment was basically, " Of the hundreds of breeds of dogs in the world, why do you need a pitbull?" These dogs are intimidating and were bred for fighting. I know all the pitbull owners will come forward in defense of their animals saying how gentle they are and how great they are around kids, blah, blah, blah, and I'm sure a lot of them are. But so are black labs, golden retrievers or any one of a hundred other breeds without being violent and unpredictable. The fact remains that time and again in this city and across the country if there is a dog attack in the news it is invariably involves a pitbull. 

     The talk show hosts and politicians don't want to discuss it but there is a certain type of pinhead that own these dogs in the Greater Vancouver area. I live in North Vancouver where dogs are extremely popular and in my line of work I meet many families with many breeds of dog, none of them pitbulls. I walk quite often through doggie parks and various trails as well with nary a pitbull in sight. Generally these attacks seem to take place in the outlying areas, Surrey and Port Coquitlam where the hosers and rednecks are (and I know not everyone in these areas are hosers and rednecks). These dogs are often involved in the defense of grow-ops and meth labs and to intimidate rival gangs but the hosts of the talk show felt it was politically incorrect to "stereotype" and "discriminate." I read a story of this pinhead in Surrey that hung his pitbull by his neck in the living room to "toughen him up." Nobody wants to admit it what we all know the type of person I'm talking about. 

     Now I'm not stupid enough to believe this is indicative of all pitbull owners (Michael J. Fox has one, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel owns three, Rachel Ray even has one and we all know Michael Vick had a bunch...woops) but I reiterate, "Why a pitbull?" I know it all comes down to the owner and proper training with any breed of dog and chances are good of getting bit or nipped by the smaller breeds but your life isn't going to be on the line. (Headline reads, "Man mauled by pack of wild westies"). I've been chased by three giant poodles, bit by a Maltese twice (our own), a small mutt, a spaniel and a squirrel monkey but the only time my life felt threatened was from the monkey bite. Mom had me convinced I was going to get lock jaw and I needed a tetanus shot, I didn't know what lockjaw and tetanus was at the time but it didn't sound good.

     Pitbulls have been banned in Ontario, Winnipeg and in various States and countries around the world. Is it really going to take someone to die before these "dogs" are banned here ? This city and province is so freaking worried about pissing someone off and remaining "politically correct" that they can't make a decision about anything. Let's open up some more safe injection sites, give alcoholics free wine (hmm...) and hand out more free condoms and crack pipes... and God forbid we search for oil and natural gas off our own coast. We live in one of the most beautiful, abundant places on the planet but it often seems like we're a bunch of tree huggers with no backbone....

     Pretty good argument against breast enhancement...

    I like Christina Ricci, that's all I'm sayin'...