Two recent news reports carry the same theme: profiling dogs by breed and sentencing them to death because of what they might do. First, in Invercargill, New Zealand:
The six-week-old pups were given a lethal injection on Tuesday because the [Invercargill City] council felt they would grow up to be dangerous. …
[Council chief executive] King disputed the breed of the puppies, saying they were rottweiler-bull terriers, which meant they were likely to become dangerous despite the SPCA claiming good homes created good dogs.
“In theory that’s all good but (killer) Charles Manson was a lovely person at one stage, too,” he said.
However, in this particular case, the puppies were destroyed because of their particular crossbreed, the mother’s aggression, and the council being cautious, Mr King said.
[Via : Puppies could have lived - news - southland-times | Stuff.co.nz.]
The other report comes from Northern Ireland:
Bruce, a Staffordshire-bull terrier cross, was seized by North Down Borough Council dog control officers in 2007.
It was ruled to be a banned pit-bull type and a magistrate has ordered its destruction, but owner Shannon Brown is appealing the ruling.
“He has never harmed anyone or ever would, if he did I would have put my hand up to it,” she said. …
The council said it was acting to meet its “statutory responsibilities” under the Dangerous Dogs (NI) Order 1991.
“This makes it illegal for anyone to have a pit-bull type dog in their possession or custody,” the council said.
[Via : BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Death row dog for Court of Appeal.]
It seems the crime these dogs have committed is to have been born the ‘wrong’ breed. In neither case was it shown the dog had actually threatened or harmed anyone.
Is there hard evidence that certain breeds are highly likely to harm people? Even the Invercargill spokesperson pointed out that some people (Manson, in this case) cause serious harm to people. Do we go about locking up the offspring of convicted killers?
Dogs can potentially cause harm to people and animals — in part it’s in their nature, especially when they work together in a pack. But it seems to be in the nature of some people too, and again, the ‘pack’ tends to play a large part in that.
What do you think? Should dogs be banned because of their breed? Should puppies be killed solely because of their breed?
