Dog Bite Prevention Resolution Considered by Congress

Do you ever go back and read what you've posted and hold yourself up to your own standards?

You just took the words right off my keyboard.

:hail: :hail: :hail:

The issue isn't something you personally disliked that I may have said years ago on another thread, but something Amstaff said recently on this thread. I'm sure we could go and find posts from you which would make a fine justification for saying you shouldn't dare open your mouth online, but that would be just as irrelevant as what you're suggesting.

First off, I - and the rest of the moderators - do our very best to put what you may or may not have said "years" ago completely out of conscious memory. We remember the tone of the majority of your posts, but it's difficult not to, as it is consistently viperish.

Next, if you were addressing something Amstaff said on this thread, it's interesting that you quoted Blue and Miakoda and not Amstaffer.

It's never irrelevant to hold oneself up to the standard one would apply to others.

This is a long standing habit of yours, and I've watched you alternately browbeat others for some slight, real or imagined, to yourself, accuse other people of playing victim when they respond to your snipes, then turn and blatantly cast yourself as the innocent victim when they hand you back a little of your own medicine.

It's gone on long enough, and I and ALL the other moderators are heartily fed up with your pettiness and general bitchery and poisonous posts so carefully worded as to just skirt the very loose boundaries of civility enjoyed by most here.

Consider this a warning and a promise: if you continue to be a cancer in the community here, I won't hesitate to excise you, that is, if one of the other mods doesn't beat me to it.

I hope my PM to you about her being a drain on the forums morale and patience isnt what spurred this.

Consider any pm or any single thing you or anyone else could have possibly said, a single grain of sand in the desert.

Amen.

Casa .... please don't be your own worse enemy ....you can be very beneficial to others here . Many of us have had to eat crow...and properly seasoned , it can be rather tasty !

You do have a lot to add at times Casablanca but I have to agree, you don't hold yourself to the same standards that you hold others to. If we held you to the same standards you hold others to you would have been long gone.

I'm not sure what Casa contributes here. I have yet to read a post of hers where I sat back & said to myself, "I never thought about it that way." The only thing she does is push her bigotry off as "fact" & go off on anyone who speaks against it.

I apologize for the times I lose my cool. However, trying to educate people who obviously know it all often times makes you want to bang your head into the wall.

And for the record, I'm surprised this thread warranted so much negativity. I mainly posted it for the parts in bold, however I've noticed that people are not readily susceptible to educating children & adults about proper behavior around dogs. I'm sorry that this tactic is no longer viewed as a positive one.

One that note, if education doesn't work & is not wanted, then I will hold my words.

I am confused as to why education is bad? I have seen more bites happen because of bad dog/human communication than I have because of a dangerous dog. So if we can teach kids how to approrpriately and safely deal with dogs, then we'll be a lot better off.

Myself and many of my friends are involved in Bite Prevention education. Teach kids manners when with dogs. Hell, teach kids manners when with people! Lord knows that "manners" as a whole in today's society are lacking.

Will effective bite prevention get rid of each and every dog bite? No. But I'm willing to bet the numbers will be drastically reduced.

Education HAS been shown to reduce dog bites. Calgary spends considerable funds on dog safety public awareness and education campaigns. Research shows that just 1 hour of dog safety training in grades 2 and 3 can reduce these incidences by approximately 80%.

Don't let anyone stop you from trying to educate, it is vitally important for the children and for our dogs. You can't force someone to learn but for every one that may turn away, there are many others who do take heed.

OUr city is considering BSL and I actually talked to the director of AC there in Calgary. Very, very impressive. I believe that education IS the key! If kids know not to run up to a dog screaming, then yeah that kid probably is going to be less likely to get bit. I am shocked by the way some parents let their kids treat their dog so perhaps the parents should also be educated.

I have seen parents come with their kids to the shelter and allow the kids to run up to a dog, pull it's ears, sit on it, exc. WE have to be the ones to say "you really dont need to do that, it's not safe".

And, while we're at it, it's the parents who need the most education. Surprisingly, if you don't simply push your views about one breed or another on them, and attack it from the "any dog" perspective, many of them are glad to have the information. I recently did a presentation as part of a literacy program at a local library, and brought one of my therapy dogs. I could see the parents' eyes get wide as I told them that no matter what they SAY, a toddler will forget directions and just do what toddlers do. Of course, no one gets hurt, because I am demonstrating on a freakin' bombproof dog, but they got the idea, because the kids did exactly what I predicted. Then, they could see the reason why it's important to supervise all their kids' interactions with dogs. For some people, telling them doesn't work, they need to see. So, engaging the help of some friends who do own a bombproof therapy dog (whatever the breed) can help make the point about kids 'n' dogs. I don't know as many of you here as on other boards, and I don't own Pits (although I do train them), but I know that knowledge is only transmitted when the person on the receiving end is open to hearing what you have to say. The key is to find a way to open them up to what you're saying.

I know it's annoying to hear this but it's "what kids do". They run up to dogs. Yes, most intelligent parents don't let their kids do this, but it seems most parents aren't intelligent any longer when it comes to more things than this issue. For any of us to suggest that kids have to adapt to dogs' behavior instead of dogs adapting to kids' behavior is not going to fly with the public at large. Our society is run by humans (something in the past few years I am not so sure I condone...) and dog owners are expected to control their dogs. Parents on the other hand, are not required to control their kids. All we have to do is look around to know that. I have driven through the city and seen young kids go in the road, if we can't force parents to control their kids (or even bother raising them in some cases) we can never tell them that they have to learn to adapt to dogs and get educated about dogs. We will lose every single time if we go into BSL public hearings even suggesting that it's everybody else's fault when a kid gets bitten by a dog...even if it is somebody's fault.

The other thing we forget is human nature. It is human nature, for example to use flight when a dog is coming at a person. There is no way we can educate people on how to read dogs' actions, movements, nature. Most people just don't want to or care to learn these things. They instead want to feel safe by seeing to it that the law controls the dogs not the people. We can't even get people to go to parenting classes much less get them to go to "learn about dogs" classes. If a speaker at a public hearing stood up and said this was the fault of uneducated people to need to learn about dogs, chances are good they would be booed rather than received, in most cases. We are talking about local laws here and dogs do not vote. We can bring in Sparky the soon-to-be-banned breed and show them all how sweet he is but it will pale in significance to those who make laws next to the photos of Mrs. Brown's 7 year old son whose face has been destroyed by a dog attack. It's not that I disagree with you that education is the key. While education IS key, it is not realistic to imagine that people want anything else other than the easier and cheaper way out.

That's what BSL is REALLY up against. To continue the same approach is to get the same result. I don't know what the answer is of course, but before anyone is tempted to kill me as the messenger, I am just saying that for the most part, the arguments that are repeatedly being used to fight BSL are losing to the arguments in favor of BSL all over America (and Canada it seems)--at a rapid rate.

Also, this being an older thread, I probably mentioned all this before but just to confirm, having a "dog bite prevention week" is nothing more than a pubicity photo op. It ranks right up there with things like "respect women week" or "black cultural month". If people cannot respect these causes 365 days out of the year, some smarmy politician comes up with a "week" for it. It's a sure sign of a cause that has no teeth. Congress has NO control over BSL either. It is strictly a state and local issue and always will be. It's just not in the jursdiction of congress. Thus, let's sign a resolution (which is not a law) and give it a "week" or a "month" of attention.

Right you are. And a pretty good definition of insanity is to repeat the same action expecting different results. Time for new strategies to fight the hydra-headed monster of BSL.

It's funny you mentioned the definition of insanity. I thought of it after I hit send. Once again our two convoluted minds meet.

You know what's really scarey? If cigarette smoking is the example of how to succeed as vigilantes, I fear that the next natural step for these people is to ban all dogs over a certain weight. Then we will all be forced to have dogs we really do not want or that really don't make us feel safe. Small dogs are not for me. And to compound it, the health insurers have set the pace for running the country and deciding who lives or dies based on record profits. So if they can do it, imagine the kind of lobby the liability and home owners insurers have against big dogs. After all, there list is getting longer isn' it?

I for one and happy to see that Congress are doing something other than banning breeds even if its not likely to do too much. Heck there is a chance it will help.

I know I've seen education of little kids work so I don't think that its a complete waste of time. In the last week I've a ton of kids learn that before you pet a dog that you have to ask and let him smell you.

Educating adult though, thats another story. They don't always like to listen. (Sorry but from what I've seen its true, at least when your younger than them)