Recently I stumbled upon something on social media that not only shocked me but quite honestly broke my heart a little. . . or a lot, considering I am still tearing up about it. For those paying attention to current events, you are aware of the situation revolving around pit bulls in Montreal. For anyone not informed, I'll give a quick summary.
Any animal identified as a pit bull that is not currently owned, such as in a shelter or a stray, is to be euthanized. If that isn't horrifying enough, the council also voted to leave this open so additional dog breeds could be added. They also added that any pit bull that is currently owned must have a $150 registration fee on file and must be muzzled.
This ruling that was passed, ladies and gentleman, was passed on fear and fear alone. At this council meeting there was in attendance, professionals who spoke of the scientific facts and gave the council all the statistics they could, yet they were ignored.
In the 1980's, pit bulls were used for dog fights because of the misconception that they were the most vicious breed and classified as "bully breeds." Any animal that is trained to be aggressive and fight for a living, is going to be aggressive. After this trend is was almost as if the breed had a stamp on each one that read "Don't come near me or I'll bite your head off."
What people need to understand is no breed is more dangerous than another. It's the ridiculous fear that humanity has been overcome with that causes motions like this to be passed. To go out and target one specific breed and decide their lives are less meaningful despite having done nothing wrong is outrageous.
The only bright side to any of this monstrous garbage is that I am not alone in my mindset. Protests and marches broke out in Toronto soon after the news of this got out. It didn't stop at Canada as well. When this story went public it was a worldwide protest against the ban. You can go to change.org and sign one of the many petitions asking for this ban to be removed.
Animals are loyal, caring and deserve to be protected. How can we decide to put down those who cannot speak for themselves? I personally know friends with pit bulls who achieve high statuses at obedience classes and are the most gentle animal they know.
If you teach an animal to be angry and aggressive then that animal will only know hate and violence. It's not the animals fault it is the humans causing and spreading the fear. Let's be some of the first to spread knowledge and love.
