I wonder if David Zimmer* saw this article today:

Dog Bites Boy's Lip Off
Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP - A 6-year-old Springfield Township boy might need plastic surgery after a dog bit his face, tearing his lip from his face.

"He came to the shed covered in blood and I was freaking out," said his mother, Diane Ott.

The family owns Stateline Blueberries along Indiana 39 near the Michigan state line. According to La Porte County Police, Gabriel and Margorzata Przybysz of Park Forest, Ill., had gone there with their children to pick blueberries and brought their pet Chihuahua. Most of the family members were out in the field while their son tied the dog on a leash to a picnic table, police said.

The boy told investigators he warned the victim, Owen Ott, not to pet the animal but he reached down to pet the dog and was bitten. Diane Ott said her son was actually on a bicycle.

I wasn't going to comment on the 'pit bull' cloning because I feel that it's the lady's money and ultimately, her heartbreak.  In other words, it's really none of my business, like 95% of the gossip news today.

However, when the H$U$ weighs in crying crocodile tears for 'pit bulls', I can't ignore it.

"The pit bull is perhaps the most abused and persecuted dog breed [sic] in America and the money spent to clone this one pit bull could have been better used to help so many more" said Michael Markarian, Executive Vice President of the Humane Society.

I wonder how 'pit bulls' got into this mess?  That quote sounds kind of familiar.

I guess they're right though.  The money could have been used to help so many more to die.

Death for Vick's dogs urged
Humane Society chief recommends euthanizing seized pit bulls
New York Times News ServicePublished on: 08/01/07

SURRY, Va. — More than 60 dogs seized from Michael Vick's property have been sheltered here and in kennels across several counties in southeastern Virginia since April.

<snip>

"Officials from our oganization have examined some of these dogs and generally speaking, they are some of the most aggressively trained pit bulls in the country," Wayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Hundreds of thousands of less-violent pit bulls, who are better candidates to be rehabilitated, are being put down. The fate of these dogs will be up to the government, but we have recommended to them, and believe, they will be eventually put down."

The gasbaggery begins.

Here's the kind of poppycock you can expect in BC fairly soon, if things follow the usual pattern.  Remember, Bryant is one of your native sons, he's not from Ontario.  Maybe it's a genetic flaw that made him such a ticking time bomb. 

I was just tripping through the Hansard from 2004, reading some of the debates about the Ontario dog-killing plan.

Hon Mr Bryant: Mr Klees, on the other side, can't figure out why we're doing it, and I'm here to make the case for it. I guess the short answer is that these are dangerous dogs. They hurt people. They hurt kids. They hurt families. They hurt other pets. They're dangerous. They cause damage.

That's because Frank Klees is Spock-logical and also represents his constituents - two things that are beyond your ken, Mike.

Let's start locally. Let me take you through just the last couple of months in Ontario. This is a sampling of just media reports of pit bull attacks, so these aren't the many unreported pit bull attacks that have taken place. These are the pit bull attacks that have shown up in the media.

August 15: a man attacked by a pit bull in Thorold, Ontario. August 21: a woman's dog attacked in Toronto. This lady's dog was attacked and killed on that date. She came to a round table I held in the Legislature on this. August 28: a Toronto man attacked by two pit bulls. The police had to use over a dozen bullets to put the pit bulls down.

You forgot to mention that they smothered one dog with a mattress, according to reports.  Other important details about this strangely under-publicized story were left out but we expect no less from the tiny emperor sans des vetements.

August 30: I asked the people of Ontario what they thought about a pit bull ban. Over 5,000 e-mails later the answer was pretty clear.

Yes, the answer was clear but you defiantly forged ahead anyway.  There was a lot at stake  - your ratings in the polls and face-time on the six o'clock news, for starters.

There clearly are many, many unreported pit bull attacks that have not ended up in the media or before a humane society or otherwise....

So, there are clearly a lot of secret 'attacks' that require no medical attention (any dog bite requiring medical attention, even just cleaning, generates a public health record).  Maybe I'm a bit thick, but if they are unreported, how do you know there are any, let alone many?

There was no unanimity, but the vast majority of people who e-mailed me, in any event, certainly supported the ban.

So when can we see these emails?  We thought you'd be handing out copies in front of the legislature, or at the least, posting them on your website or getting your handmaidens in media to publicize them for you.  Other guys read the emails they receive aloud in the House but you never do and I doubt it's for reasons of etiquette or sensitivity.

That's two months of pit bulls in Ontario, and that is just the media reports; it doesn't include the unreported incidents.

Wow, just the media reports and not the unreported incidents.  Why doesn't it include the unreported incidents - woudn't including them bolster your case?

I guess they're right - you can't fight irrationality with facts and logic.

You guys out west had best be getting it together.  This is a replay of what happened to dog owners in Ontario, thanks to media clowns.

 

B.C. must look at pit-bull ban

The Province

Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It's an issue that won't die. What do we do about dog owners who refuse to control their potentially vicious animals, letting them attack other dogs and even other humans? Like others, we are relieved that the police finally arrested a man wanted for a rash of pit-bull attacks in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island

I wonder why the issue won't die?  Oh, right, because the yapping curs at second-rate organs like The Province are keeping it on life-support.  It's funny how they keep pushing for a ban, talking about it every day, ramping it up, running polls, allowing every knuckle-dragger with access to a keyboard to comment ad nauseum and then babble about the 'ongoing controversy' around 'pit bulls'.

It would be hilarious if it weren't such a deadly game.

Then they move on to some low-rent concern trolling:

But we are concerned that despite the seizure of three adult pit-bull crosses and a puppy, the dog owner has been released without charges.

And as Province readers have pointed out, there is an irony here. The man, who was believed to have been living in a van with the dogs, is free to live in society. The dogs face a death sentence.

I just love it when media bloviators try to sound well informed and serious.  Here's where they display their in-depth knowledge of dogs, dog breeds, genetics and behaviour - their regular readers buy right into it:

That said, certain breeds of dog, including pit bulls, have been bred for a particular behaviour -- including fighting with other dogs. Undisciplined and unleashed, they can turn onto [sic] dangerous weapons.

Yeah, well, tune in, turn on, maaaaaan.  Maybe it's time to lay off that BC Bud Light.

And you yahoos at the Province should forget about promoting Ontario as a model for a dog holocaust.  The law has been gutted, remember?  We're not finished with it yet.  Stay tuned.

I guess calling Bill in Calgary and asking for his advice would take too much effort.  I mean, why would we want to hear from a guy whose program is so successful that he's invited to speak at conferences and before city councils across the continent?

It's way more fun to just make stuff up and get the peasants all in a lather over the hobgoblin du jour than to look for reality-based solutions, isn't it?

Is the Fourth Estate a watchdog for the people?  No.  It's more like the snake that swallows his own tail and calls it dinner.

Here's the rest and don't blame me, I only mock this stuff, I don't write it.

I almost forgot.  Shouldn't they be pushing for a retriever ban?

I'm on the run, I hear the hounds
My luck is up, my chips are down
So goodbye baby, so long now
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it child
The hand of fate is on me now
Yeah it's too late
Too late baby, too late now
The hand of fate is on me now
The hand of fate is heavy now

It pick you up and knock you down

                            -M. Jagger, K. Richards

Hey, you know that stupid plastic hand?  The one they use in shelters to tease strange dogs with to find out if they take umbrage at having their mealtimes disturbed?  If they do, it's curtains - no homes for them!

One Bark at a Time has a great little script up today that captures the whole stupid plastic hand schtick (stick?) perfectly.

Warning:  Don't hit that link unless you want a laugh.