Punish the Deed - Not the Breed

By Kendra McCord

I would like to start this series of articles by telling my own story... When I was eight years old several friends and I were riding our bicycles up and down an ally in our neighborhood. In the backyard of a house along that alley a two-year-old Saint Bernard was chained to a tree behind a short fence. That same dog was in that same place all day - every day from the time it was a pup, so we did not think anything of it. After those two years and on that one fateful day the dog finally broke free and charged me. I was not fast enough and was mauled. When it was all over I crawled the block and a half home with torn clothing and bleeding badly. I received over one hundred stitches from the incident and it took many weeks to recover. I still have some scaring over thirty years later.

As I stated, this family pet was chained to the same tree all its life. The owner never trained or socialized the dog a day in its life and as far as I'm concerned this poor dog was not considered or treated as a family pet but as a useful tool for a selfish, callous man. The emergency doctor that treated me, who had seen and treated many dog bites said it was a good thing that the dog just wanted to play. I learned through talking to the police that one of my classmates had been recently bitten two weeks prior but their wasn't much that they could do. When my father confronted the owner about the medical bills he was very dismissive and refused to pay or put the dog in training or even move the dog to a safer location. After my father had a long "talk" with the owner he finally agreed to pay the medical bills and when given the option between training the animal or putting it to sleep he choose to put the poor dog down. My father was never criminally charged for the discussion.

The reason I told you this story is that my point of view on these subjects comes from personal experience, much research and not from sensationalized media reports, bias statistics or insurance company bullying. My goal is to help stop breed specific legislation, breed bias, insurance company discrimination and most importantly... the outright genocide of loving innocent members of our community. Right now in the US there are restrictions and bans on breeds ranging from Pugs to Great Danes. How long before our children are attempting fetch with their favorite guinea pig.

I don't blame the dog that bit me or its breed. I blame the man that owned a dog that was not trained, socialized or loved. Dogs are bred, trained and molded into what they become by the people that own them so please... punish the deed not the breed.

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