Your story on the dog attack (Pitbulls attack children oakbaynews.com) concerned me seeing as I feel it’s fairly biased. As someone who sees themselves as an advocate for pitbull type dogs and all animals in general, I find myself drowning in attempt to try to change people’s opinions on such a loving breed. Since there’s already so much unreasonable hatred and negativity towards these dogs from previous false media portrayal, it’s impossible for them to catch a break.
I noticed that there was no evidence that the dogs were pit bulls other than what the family thought. There’s a surprising amount of dog breeds out there which have the appearance of a pit bull, such as the dogo Argentino, mastif, boxer, black lab, and many mixed breed dogs. That being the case, I hope you might change some of the wording used in the article and erase the breed labeling all together.
In Montreal a ban was put in place after a woman was attacked and killed by a boxer mislabeled as a pit. Many people had to euthanize their pets or pay fees because their dog was a certain breed, not even the kind that had been involved in the attack. It has been proven that breed bans do not work.
I have seen 16 year old dogs being forced to put on a muzzle when they can’t even walk on their own. Videos of children crying as their beloved pet’s taken away. Surely we do not want to enact this in Victoria too.
Publishing the word “pitbull” in a negative context makes it much more difficult for all dogs of this breed as well as the ones who look like pits. No more dogs need to die because of false representation in the media.
Megan Ewing
Oak Bay