What happens to your letters....

I wrote a letter to the Edmonton Sun about a junkyard dog that bit some people and is now slated to die. Here's the original text....

I am very sorry for the victims in this incident, which include Bruiser. A dog chained in a junkyard by a negligent owner, left isolated, untrained and unsocialized, is an accident waiting to happen. I note that there is a comment that the dog had bitten before. Was the owner charged at that time? Did animal control do any followup to see whether the dog's living conditions had been improved, whether the dog was receiving any obedience training, taken off-chain?

Now the junkyard owner refuses to acknowledge ownership of the dog and thinks to wipe the slate clean by killing Bruiser. There is nothing to stop this person from getting another dog, chaining it, failing to train and socialize it, and creating another dangerous dog.

Even David Aitken, director of complaints and investigations for the city bylaw department, stated, "There's concerns with the dog owner's ability to keep the dog on the property". How will this owner keep any other dog on the property?

Had this dog been a german shepherd type (a common junkyard dog), would people be asking about a "breed ban"? Breed is irrelevant. Responsible dog ownership is all.

Poor Bruiser. Chained, isolated, unsocialized, and now slated to die because of a negligent human.

Any law concerning dogs must look to behaviour of the human owner, not at the shape of the dog.
===============================================================
The letter was printed by the Edmonton Sun, after some editing, fifth one down....as you can see, letters can be severely edited. I'm grateful they kept the basic thought behind the letter.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2007/04/26/4130547.html

I am very sorry for the victims in the pit bull incident, including Bruiser. A dog chained in a junkyard and left isolated, untrained and unsocialized is an accident waiting to happen. Breed is irrelevant. Responsible dog ownership is all. Poor Bruiser - slated to die because of a negligent human. Any law concerning dogs should consider the behaviour of the human owner, not the shape of the dog.