A frustrated entry by Misty's mom

I was watching Miami Animal Police yesterday. It was an episode centered on pit bulls. They are banned in Miami Dade, but allowed in Broward County.

These Miami cops got wind of a loose pitty running around, it had bitten the mail man and tried to bite quite a few other people. They got to the neighborhood and chased this thing around for a while. It snarled, it lunged, it was pretty mean. Then it led them to a house where an elderly Hispanic woman was outdoors.

The cops yelled "GO BACK INSIDE!!!" as the dog ran towards her.

The lady looked at the giant brown pit bull and called to it. It stopped, and went indoors. It was her dog.

The officers explained to her that she'd incurred $1,100 worth of fines, for having the dog unleashed, for owning a pit bull, and for having it bite somebody. In Spanish, she said "But, I'm poor."

The cops said that either way, they were going to take this dog away since it was an illegal breed, but that if she surrendered it to the SPCA on site, they wouldn't charge her anything. Her voice trembled as she asked "are they doing to kill him?" The officer said yes. She put her dog on a leash one last time, and collapsed in hysterics as the cops took him away.

Later in the episode, 4 trained-to-fight pitbulls in Broward County were temperment trained and tested. They were all adopted into loving homes.

It hurts me so much seeing this difference, how one loved and owned pet and sole companion to an elderly woman would be euthanized... while trained fighting dogs successfully prove that they can change. All because of a few miles difference between them.

I love my dog like she's my daughter. They say when you become a parent, suddenly every child could be your child. I think it's the same way with having a pet. All cruelty to animals just hurts, shatters, and mortifies me. I want to jump up and do something, right away. Unfortunately, my allergies don't permit me to work within an animal shelter, so I have to come up with something else that will allow me to feel as though I'm really helping.

When I read about this mass slaughter of 50,000 or so household pets in China, which was not the first time they'd done this... I felt so much anger. It was compounded by helpless frustration.

And don't even get me started on the ridiculous amounts of stupidity that come out of people's mouths.

I could slap every friend of mine that has ever said:

I won't spay/neuter my dog(s) because...

- They deserve to be a mother/father
- I want to have puppies around. Puppies are soooo cute.
- It's too expensive.
- It'll hurt them!

It's infuriating. Unless I knew I was going to be able to keep 3 or 4 extra dogs in my house, and afford veterinary care for all of them at any given time, I'd never have let Misty have puppies. Not to take them away from her when they got older, and give them away to an uncertain future.

Alright, I promise I won't go into this any further. I'm only making myself more upset, when the whole point of this entry was to vent. I need to find a way to help.

Leave a Comment