I am going to be completely upfront: this article will be biased. I am an avid animal lover, and I frequently speak out about the wrongs of animal cruelty all over the world. Ask anyone close to me; animals are a top priority in my life. I am a vegetarian by choice, I refuse to support organizations that exploit animals for money (i.e. zoos and aquariums), and you will never find a drop of makeup on my face that isn’t cruelty-free. All this being said, the recent news about Montreal has put me in a funk.

It’s unfathomable to me that someone could put a brand on a breed and use that to justify killing thousands and thousands of innocent dogs. It’s sad and disheartening. To kill thousands of animals based on one unfortunate situation is unacceptable. The restrictions are so strict it’s insane. Dogs shouldn’t be forced to wear a muzzle just because of their breed. If they’re well trained, they shouldn’t have to be restrained to a four- foot leash.

Much of the fear that comes with “bully breeds” is taught. There are plenty of dog attacks that don’t come from pit bulls that aren’t in the news. People don’t want to hear about a poorly mistreated St. Bernard that attacked someone; they want to feed into the fear that breeds like pit bulls and German shepherds are vicious. This bill isn’t about making people feel safe; it’s radical and unjustified.

No animal deserves the kind of hate that pit bulls get. If you’re scared of pit bulls, you should be scared of any dog that comes near you, because you never know the background of any dogs’ life. Dogs still get abused. They still come from puppy mills. Dog fights are still more common than people think. Any dog that you ever encounter could have some scary past that you don’t know about. This is not breed specific. Any dog can be violent, and creating a bill that only gets rid of a certain type of dog isn’t going to fix the problem of dogs becoming aggressive. That’s up to humans.

It’s up to us to end animal cruelty. Yes, there will always be unfortunate situations, that’s a sad part of life, but that can happen anywhere any time, with any type of animal. You can’t fix everything, and slaughtering thousands of dogs is not the answer to this problem. The dogs are not the ones to blame in all of this, and it’s not fair that they have to pay the price.

Below is a link to a petition that I highly encourage you sign. This bill isn’t right. It’s going to affect so many animals and so many families. It’s up to us to do something about it.

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-montreal-from-killing-pit-bulls.html