This year in the country in which your humble blogger currently resides, the government enacted a new “police code”.  The police  have been given greater power to enforce certain politicians’ ideas of  “a civil society”, yet in their rush to “make everyone behave” they have acted in an ingenuous (at best) manner.  The matter I’ll address in today’s venting of virtual steam is the matter of “leash and muzzle laws”.

According to the new police code, canine breeds that are “considered potentially dangerous” must be kept on a short leash and with a muzzle.  This is the canine equivalent of saying “People who are considered of dangerous ancestry will not be allowed to possess weapons.” It is a painting with a broad brush of undefined and nebulous categories which can be twisted and used to obligate people who own large breeds of dogs to subject their canine companions to indignities, discomfort and lack of proper exercise. Nothing in the code specifies which breeds are “considered potentially dangerous”.

Here’s OUR experience in the matter.  A bit over a year ago we acquired a cute little bundle of energy that reportedly is the result of crossing a half breed bulldog with some version of “pitbull”.  Since she first arrived at our place she has been taught obedience, becoming much more obedient than most people’s children these days.  She is not allowed on furniture or beds nor yet allowed to jump on visitors.  She’s been taught respect from the beginning.

Our problems with other dogs started also from the beginning.  While walking her on a leash we’ve had various different canines attach her with no provocation other than we were walking in a public area.  Miniature pinschers, cocker spaniels, poodles, jack russel terriers and schnauzers have been among the most common aggressors.   Rarely have we come across a truly aggressive canine of the larger breeds, not even among the various breeds known as “pits” or “pitbulls”.  Yet those small balls of fur are allowed to freely run and to freely attack innocent passers by – both canine and human, and this is NOT addressed in the new legislation. After all, they are not considered “potentially dangerous”.

This afternoon we took our pup (loose use of the term, she’s almost 17 months old) to the park, hoping to find her good friends Terry and Aldo (a Fila Brasileira/Mastiff mix and a Great Dane) so she could have a good romp.  They didn’t show, but a young man with a siberian husky  bitch came to the park.  She immediately started to attack our Biscuit – who responded as she always does by going into full bore submission/reconciliation mode. This has been her attitude towards aggression since she was tiny, return friendship offers in the face of hostility.  Yet the husky attacked her again and again and the young man said “she never does this”.  As we talked with him and watched our pup continue to try to be friends with an obviously uncontrolled and aggressive canine, he told us in a matter of fact manner that the police told him to carry plastic bags to pick up her excrement, but that he doesn’t have to keep her muzzled – all while his canine kept attempting to savage ours.

And that, my friends, is what happens when daft legislators are allowed to write unjust laws.  The innocent are caused to suffer while the guilty are allowed free reign.