[Rott4ever]

This breed-ban thing has been eating at me for a long while. The same path of least resistance is unfortunately being taken in Europe as well. However, in Wisconsin’s case, there is a bright spot in that someone finally realized that the problem lies with the owners, not the dogs. However, like SarasMom well points out, that should apply to ALL breeds, not just those who have fallen in disgrace due to unmerited stigma.

I once surfed the net for many hours, for days in a row, to try and find a list of misdeeds performed by other breeds, like the glorified Golden Retrievers (my husband’s favorites, no less…) and such other can-do-no-wrong breeds. No luck . And it’s NOT because they don’t do any wrongs, but because there is no organization (here in the USA and elsewhere) that keeps track of dog offenses, by breed. One of my husband’s most venomous contentions to me is that Rottweilers KILL kids, the implication being, “Have you ever heard of a bird dog KILLING a kid?”. With no hard data on hand, how can you begin to fight this?

I insist that the media has hurt us immensely, by making a handful of incidents appear to be the norm, and parading carefully chosen “experts” to testify about the fact that there ARE certain breeds of dogs which are innately vicious. And that strategy did it. The dogs they focused on have fallen from the graces of an ignorant public as a result. And now, thousands upon thousands of hones, decent owners of such breeds have a heck of a time presenting the truth and seeing it understood and accepted. It reminds me of the saying in the old country: “one madman throws a rock into the lake, and ten wisemen can’t take it out.”

And yes, making changes takes money, of which there is always little… and it all gets me so mad and frustrated.

I wrote in one of my posts about the stonewalling a blind Australian encountered when he wanted to register Angel, his Rottie, as his guide dog. I said then and say it again now: the same thing would happen in the U.S. Why do you think that is? Because people with deep-seated prejudice against Rotties would rather die than see them redeemed. And, in my mind at least, what better way to redeem these dogs than to see them lead as many blind people as the fair-haired breeds (Golden Retrievers, Labs, etc.)?

Maybe we need to concentrate, with the support of every Rottie organization, on fighting and winning this battle. I think that once won, it will take care almost by itself of all the other “objections” to our breed, and of the constant obstacles laid in its path.