Nicely said. I'm former veterinary nurse and now a biologist, so I understand what you're saying completely. I also have mixed feelings about people's extreme emotional reactions to these stories, because in the swamp of "feeling", people don't think logically about the problem.

Are all pit bulls mean? No, some are extremely sweet. But most of them are bred to have at least some inclination towards wanting to chase or kill small animals or other dogs.

MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY: it does not matter if these dogs are mean or if they are the sweetest animals in the world; their jaw power is unacceptably dangerous. They are animals. Every - animal - bites - if pushed far enough, by a chaotic situation or a screaming, hyper child. These dogs are dangerous.

I am not saying that pit bulls should all be destroyed, but there should be a ban on breeding them.

As for Vick, he is not part of this mental illness. He did not live in poverty during his prime - he had it all. Keep in mind, many hoarders, animal collectors, get severe punishment for simply taking in strays and not caring for them as they cannot even care for themselves. Those folks often go to jail. Vick is not being punished because he is a celebrity.

He had it all and he absolutely chose to give it all up. He needs to remain in jail or else other dog fighters will know they can get away with murder.

As for who is more important, people or dogs, give me a break. People are not dogs, dogs are not people. Dogs can't earn a PhD, humans could never have the incredible, sharp instincts and sensory perceptions that dogs do.

Their ancestors began to live side by side with us and their "simple" way of life kept both sides from becoming too arrogant or comfortable with ourselves as we are now. We need to learn humility.

We make a big mistake when we talk about "those helpless animals" Huge mistake. We need to learn why each animal is unique and deserves our respect. I like the motto of the women's right movement: Love me less, respect me more.

The number of dogs euthanized each year is 1-2 million, not 10-60 million.

See http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/pet_overpopulation_an... - it's 3-4 million for dogs and cats both, and at least half are cats.

Mandatory s/n laws are opposed b/c they are ineffective and controversial. Subsidizing low cost s/n is estimated to be at least 4 times more cost effective, and does a better job of targeting the owners who are a problem.

To quote Wayne Pacelle, head of HSUS, "The problem is not unsolvable. Nationwide, only about 20 percent of dogs in homes come from shelters—the rest come from other sources. It would only take a relatively small increase in the adoption rate along with a modest reduction in the birth rate to go a long way toward solving the problem of euthanizing healthy and treatable dogs in many communities." See http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/11/not-killing-pet.html

Don't use bad statistics to create a feeling of helplessness, when great progress has been made on this issue. This is something we can solve.

Where did you get the 10-60 million statistic? I am very interested in this issue (very involved in it) and the wildly inaccurate numbers I see never fail to astonish me.

If what you are asking for is harmony between man and animal, then I am all for a cultural change, but as previous responders have said, "Don't use bad statistics to create a feeling of helplessness."

Talk about how we can be more harmonious with the earth and other living creatures instead of saying we are killing 10-60 million small children every year. I will say this again as I did in your previous post: I love this site, but you are making me want to skip over your blog with this sort of emotionally driven blog post.

The BEAUTIFUL thing about our human species is this seemingly infinite capacity for consciousness, not only for and about our individual selves, but also our collective selves and with such an ingenius tool as the internet making this all the more palpable and attainable.

The very TRAGIC thing about our species is both our difficulty or even inability to recognize this capacity, and once recognized, the failure to act on it, and as you said, deciding to take RESPONSIBILTY to salvage what we can.

We all know the wrong turns we've made. We can FEEL it. All of us can. It's what's making us feel like crap right now. But LISTEN to it. Don't go back to watching sit-coms and drinking and going to clubs, etc. Escapism only exacerbates it. EDUCATE yourself.

We let fear keep us in war, we continue to chase after a FINITE resource that pollutes the air that we breathe, we let greed enslave us, and all the while reproduce out of control and leave nothing future generations.

If there is intelligent life out there in the cosmos who are capable of reaching out to us, they're no doubt smart enough not to bother.

Even dogs don't sh*t where they eat.

Didn't Einstein say, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over agin and expecting different results"?

Thank you for writing this, Steven. It needs to be said. Anyone else not moved by the collective suffering in the world and who doesn't recognize their power to change it is simply not paying attention.

And one more favorite quote before I end my rant of the day :)

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
YG

Thank you for having the bravery to state what is obvious to far too few.

Dear Sir,
There is an excellent book I would recommend to you. The author is the founder of the No-Kill Shelter movement in this country - Nathan Winograd. His book is entitled "Redemption, The MYTH of Pet Overpopulation".

I followed the Vick's story in the LA Times, and one article mentioned that Vick had beaten a few women. I don't remember any formal chargers, but I don't remember much controversy about it either. I suspect it was because some of these women were exotic dancers. I know this comment is a bit off topic, but I had thought about it because you mentioned the women's rights movement.

The title is deliberately provocative, but the Winograd book "Redemption" is a wonderful look at how to end the problem of homeless animals. Absolutely first rate and very much worth reading.

The point of the title is that animal overpopulation has reduced to the point where, with the proper approach, communities CAN end the euthanasia of adoptable animals. The situation not only is not helpless, real success can be achieved. The author has succeeded in doing this and has helped others do so as well in their communities.

Fabulous book.

BTW, re stats - a couple of states I know of (California and Virginia) collect and publish shelter statistics - the euthanasia numbers they report, if extrapolated across the US, are consistent with a euthanasia rate of 1-2 million nationwide. They are nowhere NEAR the sorts of numbers quoted in the blog post.

I really get VERY upset when people throw around hugely inflated numbers, as it implies "why bother?"

That is a HUGE disservice to the animals, whose lives depend on our actions.

In fact, we have successfully cut the euthanasia rate to a TINY fraction of what it used to be, and I STRONGLY believe I will see the end of euthanasia of adoptable pets in my lifetime. Thousands of us all over the country are working on this, with real successes.

Next time you post on something like this, please do your homework!!!!!! This is too important to do anything less.

1-2 million euthanasias is for dogs only, per year - cats are as many or more per year.

It's bad enough without inflating it.

To the "pit bull" "vet tech"..Well thank goodness you got away from dogs.. but very scary to think you are 'biologist" .. ALL dogs were born to chase things.. how do you think carnivores obtained their food.. ran out to pet store for kibble. Also "pit bulls" are not a breed..not do they have any stronger jaws than ohter dogs their size.. talk about "drinking the HSUS kool-aid".. as the the author of the blog.. I know it belongs to you.. BUT please get you facts straight.. and your numbers... the number of animals in shelters has been DROPPING every year.. and would drop to almost zero if pet limit laws were taken off of the books and people were allowed to increase the size of their number of pets.. by the way.. most animals killed in shelters are feral cats..

Ahaaa! Thank you Bestuvall, you made me laugh.

When did I ever say that dogs were not born to chase things? What I said is that pit bulls are more prone to attack dogs than most dogs I've seen. Ask any behaviorist if you don't beleive me. And are you somehow amused at the idea of an infant who gets his or her face chewed off by a pit bull?

Pit bulls DO NOT let go very easily. Since Halloween, two infants in my region alone have been mauled by pit bulls. One infant is okay, the other one is dead. I think the reason it's so prevalent is because there are SO many pit bulls being bred around here. At the shelter where I worked, almost 70 percent of our dogs were pit bulls.

I'm with you on one point though, pit bulls are not the only problem breed. It's irresponsible dog owners that put us all in hell.

I'm sorry that you don't have any professional degree or experience to back up your numbers, you seem so sure of yourself.....

ps Natalie, I think your point is a really good one. A now well-known study at Northeastern University (I think that's the one, it's in Boston) showed that people who abuse animals were much more likely to commit violent crimes against people. And the animal right's movement has gained a lot of strength from the women's and civil right's movements.

Regarding the stats that everyone is talking about, we have to ask ourselves, are we referring to all shelters? Are we including no-kill shelters? Are we including private homes who may be non-profits but are run by well-funded individuals? I knew a woman who ran a shelter from her veterinary clinic - that "shelter" alone took in 300 cats. Are we including that place too? What about feral cats who are rounded up and killed immediately at shelters, are we including those as well?

We have to define the word "shelter" before we get into statistics.

In Virginia, the statistics include ALL shelters and rescues, including no kills, non-profits, rescues, private fosters, feral cats killed immediately at shelters, etc. ALL shelters and rescues are required by law to report all animals they take in, even if they just take them in to euthanize, to the state. All of the examples you give would be included in the statistics.

For the latest year with full stats available (2007), it's around 40,000 euthanasias for dogs and around 60,000 for cats. For dogs, if you applied that rate to the whole US, it extrapolates out to about 1.58 million canine euthanasias per year for the whole US. Even assuming it's low by 20%, it's still under 2 million across the whole US at that rate.

My understanding is that California stats are similar and include all rescues and shelters of any sort, including feral euthanasias. They euthanized 146,318 dogs in 2006 - that extrapolates out to about 1.16 million canine euthanasias per year for the whole US.

Neither number is more than a rough estimate - but note that both are in the same ballpark, of 1-2 million euthanasias per year if extrapolated out across the entire US. That is also the estimate given by HSUS (which estimates 3-4 million for BOTH dogs and cats together), Animal People, and what actual research I'm familiar with.

I have been told but have been unable to verify that New York state euthanizes around 40,000 dogs per year - at that rate for the whole US, it would be about 0.6 million dogs euthanized per year. That number is almost certainly too low, as the northeast arguably has the lowest rate of any region.

All reliable estimates I'm aware of are in that ballpark, and are supposed to include rescues and all forms of shelters (including private fostering for non-profit rescue groups, if done in an organized manner on a regular basis.)

They do not include one-off fosters for obvious reasons, where someone takes in a dog or cat off of the street and keeps it or gives it to a friend, primarily b/c how do you id those people? My guess would be those account for lots of adoptions but relatively few euthanasias.

Hi Steve,

I read your post with much interest as I am an avid animal lover in general and dog lover in particular. There are endless famous quotes available on the Internet that speak to the wondrous nature of our canine friends. To pick one such quote:

"The more I know about men, the more I like dogs." - Gloria Allred, feminist attorney

In my opinion, on a deontological level, there are few acts that are more immoral than animal cruelty.

Regards,

GS