Dumb Animals

In spite of my earlier cheery weblog, I had a really distressing start to the day. Two pit bulls were fighting outside my bedroom window and the howling of the losing dog woke me up.

I leaned out of the window to see what was going on, to find one dog had the other's neck in its jaws and wasn't letting go.

All of this was horrific enough, but it was the behaviour of the owners that really distressed me. There were four young men surrounding the animals, shouting, cursing, generally making the situation worse.

How were these "responsible" dog owners dealing with the situation? By kicking the shit out of both dogs repeatedly. A rather brave woman came up with a broom and told the guys to stop kicking the dogs as that would only make the attacking one grip tighter and she suggested using the handle of the broom to prise the dog's teeth open.

Surprise, surprise these big strong men were all too pussy to go anywhere near the dog's mouth. Kicking it in the belly was fine but god forbid they might get hurt! Luckily another neighbour came out with an iron golf club, and tho he was twice the age of the boys, he had the cojones to actually stick it in the poor animal's mouth and free the other dog.

The owner of the attacking dog clipped it's leash back on - a huge, heavy chain affair, obviously more for show than for any real use - and buggered off. None of the boys said thank you to the guy who saved their animals, and he just wandered back off to his house.

The dog that had been bitten wasn't in such a bad way physically, there was a bit of blood coming from the back of it's neck but psychologically the poor creature was fucked. It was cowering, looking up at its owner who didn't show an ounce of compassion towards his 'pet'. His pride was obviously hurt cos his dog was weaker than the other, you could see the disgust pouring out of him for this animal.

The broom lady told him to take the dog to the vet, but he dismissed her with a wave of his hand. He put the collar back on his dog, no leash which is probably how his dog got into the scrap in the first place.


It got me thinking about a radio show I did a few years ago. There was a section called "Sunday Soapbox" and they asked me for a topic I felt passionately about. I chose pet owners.

My stand was that people should be intelligence tested before they can own a pet. Too many idiots get their hands on animals when they have no idea how to take care of them. After my speech, the phone lines were opened, and I got a few people telling me I was a fascist for suggesting such a thing. One incredulous man said 'presumably you'd advocate the same thing before people were allowed to have children'. I replied that that went without saying.

Today I saw examples of both. A pair of idiots raised with no manners or respect, owning two potentially dangerous animals, what a lethal combination. What if that had been a child the dog had in it's jaws?

Perhaps I am naive, but to me there is no such thing as a dangerous dog, just a stupid, ignorant owner.

Sometimes man is the dumbest animal of all