Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

In case you didn't know, I am a dog person. First and foremost, I'm an animal lover in general. But it has been brought to my attention lately through some anecdotal evidence, apparently I have special abilities to not smell dogs (apparently they are smelly?) and to naturally want to love on every dog I see, no matter how "scary" they may look to others. I guess this makes me a dog person.

I grew up with a succession of wonderful dogs. They were all different. Bridget, Missy, Mittens, Gina, Misty, and Casey. All mutts except Gina who was supposedly a purebred lab, though she was an "accident" and didn't have any papers. I've also known other people's wonderful dogs in my life. Bridget, Gypsy, Pamiju, Cookie, Ginger, Mugsy, Katie, Maddie, Nickie, Casey, Jozey, Clara, Bailey, Cleo, Peanut, Sola, Zoey, Xena, Pugs... the list goes on I'm sure. (Sorry if I met your dog and forgot to mention him/her. If I met them I'm sure I loved them!) And of course, our Billy:

So here's what I hate: breed specific laws.

Like Boston's ordinance about pit bulls:

This link will download the pdf of the Boston City Ordinance regarding Pit Bulls.

Why? Because of stories like these:

Hercules the Pit Bull

Stanley the Pit Bull

Despite the fact that bad people own pit bulls and torture them and raise them to be aggressive, the breed it not naturally aggressive. In fact, I would argue that really, no dog is "naturally" aggressive. If a dog is raised and trained properly, even lazily (the way my family always "trained" our dogs - ha ha), they do not grow up to be aggressive, dangerous dogs. The real danger, surprise surprise, is always the people involved.

Breed specific laws do nothing to help the situation. All they will do is punish responsible owners. Check out Boston's different licensing regulations for Pit Bulls:

City of Boston Dog license website

So pit bull owners have to pay 10x as much, and go through a lot of extra bother, just because of the breed their dog is. Do you suppose irresponsible, terrible dog owners are actually going to do this? Of course not. It literally accomplishes nothing that it is designed to do. And who suffers? Always the dogs. Always. So, way to go, City of Boston, I'm so proud of your intelligent consideration of the issue (read: cowing to fear-mongering idiots) and your responsible administration of dogs in your city. Great work.

If you aren't already angry enough, why not read about some other great work by human beings?

Bear Bear the husky shot for no reason by a cop in a dog park

Dave the dog in Afghanistan

Susie's Law is actually a good thing people did, but Susie's story started out horribly. Of course, I'm sure that guy who set a puppy on fire is a very responsible individual who we could rely on to raise a dog in an appropriate manner.

Listen people, what's wrong in this situation is that people are awful. We need stricter laws about what happens to people who treat animals cruelly, and less concern about what breed a dog is. Every pit bull I've known has been sweet as can be, just so loving and wanting nothing but to make their owners happy.

I recently changed my homeowner's insurance to a carrier (I gather there aren't many of them) that doesn't have dog breed restrictions in their coverage. When we adopt a dog I will be glad that we can adopt any that we feel is the right one for us, and not have to worry about breed. Of course, the city we live in may make our lives extra difficult if we adopt a pit bull. But so be it. They will just be another ambassador for the breed to educate people and make them realize that dogs are what you make of them. And I intend to love every dog I own nearly to death. so when you meet them, they will love you too.