Policy makers should look closer at owners, not just dogs
by A. Ego, Resident Monkey Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:24 AM CDT
This monkey has no love for dogs.
In fact, all dogs should be locked up or kept on a very short leash.
What Van Buren is doing in regards to the vicious-dog ordinance is a good thing. However, the problem isn't necessarily the dogs itself, but the owners.
Case in point: Haylee, the dog that resides with George and his family. This sniveling little runt is the laziest dog in the world. She won't do anything until about 3 p.m. She also thinks she's on some sort of "fun patrol." If George's daughters are having "too much fun" she'll start barking at them and chasing them.
She'll also bark and go after anyone that tries to disturb the person that she is sleeping next to at night. The ladies in George's house thinks that dog is trying to protect them, but George and this monkey believe that the dog is simply trying to protect its sleep spot.
Perhaps the worse part of this dog's personality is that George has trained the dog to go after his daughters on sight. George will simply say: "Haylee! Go get them. Go. Go get them." At that point, the dog will jump up and run after the girls or search them out if they're not in the room.
So, is Haylee a bad dog? Not really. She's a dog, so she already has a black mark against her. Is George a bad owner? Not really, but he shouldn't let the dog go after his daughters. Perhaps it should it be noted that Haylee is a toy poodle.
Another case: Eeyore. This rather "harmless" Chihuahua still haunts George's nephew, Brent. When Brent was much younger, George terrorized Brent with Eeyore to the point that Brent was literally and practically climbing the walls to get away from the dog.
Eeyore is all bark. In all the years, this monkey has never seen or heard of Eeyore biting anyone, much less scratching anyone.
So, is Eeyore a bad dog? No. Come to think of it... maybe George should stay away from small dogs.
George loves dogs, and he really loves big dogs. He would never coax a large dog to go after a child or another person. He has even thrown himself between a large dog and a child. Large dogs don't know their own strength and could harm a small child or pet without realizing what they're doing. It seems rather rash to label a dog as either "vicious" or "dangerous" purely on that basis.
The intent and the owners should be examined as much as the dogs.
Dogs aren't very smart. They lick themselves. Any creature that licks itself on a regular basis cannot be a very hygienic animal. The same can be said for humans that take baths.
The point that the only "punishment" for the dog owners through this new ordinance is an annual fee (or fine) and the purchase of $1 million liability insurance in case the dog harms someone.
This monkey says that perhaps the owners should be thrown in jail too, along with the dog. In fact, why not put both of them together in the same cell. The owners should share more responsibility.
