Editorial in LA Times calling for BSL!!!

[Cash]

Originally Posted by rottie597

I just got a snotty reply from this columnist. She claims that ALL the responses she got from rottweiler owners were "knee-jerk" and that we did not see the big picture.

Interesting The Director of my club sent her and invitation to come to her home for dinner with her family (and her Rottweiler), or to a GSRC show, or to an obedience trial, etc. Essentially anything to gain knowledge about the breed. We've heard N-O-T-H-I-N-G back.
Typical.

[mjones77]

i wrote to this woman and this is what i had to say!

In response to your editorial " with friends like these". I am writing because i have owned two rottweilers now, and they have been the most lovable and least violent dogs i have ever known. i have two young boys and i have never had a problem with this breed. i think that you should not blame the breed but the the rotten people who have treated them poorly and who have taught them to be aggressive. the last rottweiler i brought into my home had been a fighting dog, but we gave him a chance, feeling that it was not his fault and we corrected the behavior and he became a best friend for my one year old son. we never had a problem with aggressive behavior from this dog concerning people. we at first had some problems with other dogs, but after time that was corrected. other breeds can also be aggressive. should we ban them? my mother was attacked by a German Sheppard when she was nine years old. i was attacked by a chihuahua as a 5 yr old and later attacked by a German Shepard at the age of ten. my son was attacked by a Akita at the age of three. my rottweiler was attacked by a Akita 2 yrs ago. my rottweiler was also attacked by a mixed breed last year. my husband was attacked by a black lab as a child. should all of these breeds be banned as well? in all of these cases i have listed above each dog was running loose and off of their property with no owner around. i believe to lower the amount of dog attacks, we should not ban breeds, but severely punish the owners of these bad dogs, and strengthen the laws in the areas that we live in. you are entitled to have your own opinion, but as far as i can see you are basing this on one experience. please look further and see that the dogs are not to blame but the inept people who believe that owning a dog is a status symbol and not a life changing responsibility. thank you .

[fbkeays]

Originally Posted by rottie597

I just got a snotty reply from this columnist. She claims that ALL the responses she got from rottweiler owners were "knee-jerk" and that we did not see the big picture.

Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black???
Maybe I am just blind, but I am not seeing replies here as being "knee-jerk".

[rottie597]

In my reply to her I mentioned that I knew she had received many thoughtful and factual responses as I had read them. I'm still peeved at her trying to tell me she is not calling for a ban just sterility for the whole breed. Do these journalists really believe they are so intellectually superior that we poor, dumb readers are going to buy this nonsense?

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

I'm going to send her a copy of the USRC Magazine's "Service Rottweilers" I'm going to ask Liz if I'm allowed to copy the article because I don't want to violate any of the USRC policies. I will attach it with my letter. It is a very powerful piece done on police dogs and one very special Rottweiler...Faith.

She shouldn't be able to peddle her "knee-jerk" reaction in the press. She was fine until her dog was attacked. Being a journalist she should understand that when things are put into print at the height of an emotional event it can be very damaging and difficult to retract. Unless that was her goal. I'm going to send her a copy of the article about PETA being charged with animal cruelty.

Certainly she isn' the only journalist at that paper, we all work with people we don't like, I would guess by her response she must have at least one co-worker that doesn't like her very much. We need to find that person to do an article and extend an invitation for dinner or a club meeting that person.

[Imre0538]

Originally Posted by rottie597

I just got a snotty reply from this columnist. She claims that ALL the responses she got from rottweiler owners were "knee-jerk" and that we did not see the big picture. She also claimed that she was simply in favor of a few sensible regs (which she was sure I would agree with): which would not effectively ban rotties. I'm confused....the "good first step" she mentions is requiring spaying/neutering of certain breeds. Did I miss something in sex ed?

What does she think were ReTaRdEd?? Spaying/neutering equals extinction.
Like I said before, she is nothing to me, she has done a horrible thing out of resentment and openly admits it in her opening paragraph. "until a rottie attacked my newfoundland"
Why doesnt someone get a news article about a newfoundland attacking and send it to her........

[BrandiJ]

I finally just sent her a letter, but it was sent back twice, as "user unknown". I rechecked the address. Maybe she's tired of the letters and changed her address. Man, I worked hard on that too!

[rottie597]

Brandi,
Mine was sent back too....you have to put a dot between her first and last names:)

[BrandiJ]

Originally Posted by rottie597

Brandi,
Mine was sent back too....you have to put a dot between her first and last names:)

Aha! LOL! Good, I'm glad! I didn't want my letter to go to waste.

[BrandiJ]

Originally Posted by fbkeays

This is what I wrote. You need to put a period between her first and last names or it gets rejected.
I have owned rottweilers for 10 years. In those 10 years I have paid in excess of $800 in vet bills on my own dogs for damage inflicted by labs, goldens and the mixed of those breeds on unprovoked attacks on my dogs. The first time a chocolate lab attacked my first rottweiler was when she was just six months old. She carried the scars on her face for years. The lab was a certified SAR dog. My dog was on leash in a public park, the lab was not.
The first time my second rottweiler was attacked was when he was about 4 months old. I was walking him on leash, on the sidewalk. We just a few hundred feet from my house in an upper middle class neighborhood. A golden male escaped from his backyard and came charging at my puppy. He jumped on his back, with his teeth bared. I had to kick him and drag my puppy out from underneath this golden retriever to rescue him. Fortunately no serious physical damage to my dog.
My first rottweiler was in obedience class the first time she had to see a vet due to infected bites to her backside. We were doing recalls and the lab owner wasn't paying attention. I called my dog and this black lab took off after my girl and sunk her teeth into her. Then there was the black lab female raced across a parking lot to sink her teeth into my male's neck as he was looking for a place to pee before agility class. Fortunately there was a vet hospital a short distance away to clean out his wounds. I can no longer compete in obedience with him because he freezes when he sees unleashed dogs in the next ring. He thinks they are going to come and attack him.
So based on my personal experience it is the retriever family, specifically Labradors and goldens that are the dangerous, vicious, and unpredictable breeds. My rottweilers are highly titled in conformation, obedience, herding, tracking, and carting. They also regularly act as the neutral dog in CGC tests. They are an asset to the community. But you want my dogs to be muzzled, castrated and banned instead.

Ha! Just looked back and saw this post! At the very beginning it says to put a period between her first and last name. I'm an idiot!

[rottie597]

Holy crap! I just heard from Ms. Bonar again! This time she is responding to my charge that her quote "Roman dogs of war" was incorrect. I told her that they were drover dogs NOT war dogs and that I thought her quote was a bit inflammatory, implying that they were first bred for fighting. She responded that surely, with my Classics background( I have 2 degrees in Classics and have taught Latin and Roman History for 18 yrs) I must know that they have a long history as police/war dogs Since rotties were first admitted as police dogs in 1910, I'm not sure how that is either a long history or Classical history. She gets stranger by the day.

[fbkeays]

Originally Posted by rottie597

Holy crap! I just heard from Ms. Bonar again!

I feel so left out. I haven't heard one word from her I guess that she could find no fault in the fact that I wrote her of my own personal problems with those "friendly" breeds attacking my dogs when they were not being agressive. How can she say that it was my dog's fault for being attacked while minding their own business? I guess she can't attack my dogs when they are so well trained, titled and participate in CGC tests. It doesn't fit in with her "arguement" that they are all bad.
Just on Friday I was using Fizbin as a demostration of the reaction to a neuteral dog test in the CGC. I was at herding and was encouraging people to have their dog's tested on New Year's at the upcoming AHBA trial. Basically did the whole test for them (used to be an evaluator).

[Cash]

AGAIN? Holy Cow. Of all the people in LA that I know who responded - we've heard nothing. What a coward.

[pazzo]

I have not heard back eithier! I did a quick search on he web and I came across a decent website on BSL and dog bite stats and it states that there has been a fatality from just about every breed of dog including the TOY breeds!!! I did not have time to fully read the site but I saved it and it looks like it has stats on alot of different breeds. If anyone wants to check it out it is as follows: Goodpooch.com as I said I have not looked it over throughly but it looks like it has some good info for our side!

[fostermom]

Just a thought here...obviously this "journalist" is blowing us off.....what if we wrote a letter to the editor refuting her article??? Hopefully, THAT might get published. (I wrote her and never heard back also.)