Here we go again. What is one person’s dangerous dog is another person’s protector of life and property.
Forsyth County Animal Control in North Carolina, are trying to define what defines a dangerous dog. They are quick to say it’s not about the breed, but the action of the dog. If it bites, it’s dangerous. If it gets out a lot, it could be dangerous. If it kills another animal, domestic or otherwise, it’s dangerous. Get the picture?
If you have a dangerous animal, then you would have to have special kennels for outside and it wouldn’t be allowed to roam free. You would also have to carry a $100,000 insurance policy against the dog. One man with 56 acres who has been cited as having a dangerous dog is frustrated because his dog chased someone off his property.
I don’t live in Carolina, north or south. I don’t even live on the east coast. So why do I care? Simply because when rights are taken away or “amended” it has the potential to affect me in some way at some time. If I wait until one of my rights are “amended” then I fear, it will be too late.
This is my thought: why have such complications when they aren’t needed? If a dog bites, make sure it’s had its shots and find out why it bit. Was it teased? No? It just bit? Okay then, it gets one more chance, after that, it’s a dangerous dog and the owner will have to have the insurance policy and it must wear a muzzle if it’s outside its yard. If the dog chases people off the property but doesn’t continue to chase, then it is protecting the property. Period. If the dog killed another animal, first find out if that other animal was on or off the dog’s property. However, a dog killing other animals can be a difficult dog to keep. It seems they kind of like it when they get started. So, maybe those dogs should be classified as dangerous.
It’s when government entities define things, making sure everything fits in its need little peg, I get anxious. They like to make rules and regulations that affect everyone based on a small minority of people’s actions. My neighbor’s cats can use my flower beds as their personal litter box (and believe me, they do) but my dog can’t chase them off my yard. Even if my dog stopped at the end of the yard. If someone wanted to pick fruit off my tree but was chased off by my dog, would it be a dangerous dog?
If my dog bit the UPS man or the mail man or someone walking up to my door, then I really couldn’t argue. It’d be a dangerous dog.
What are your thoughts/experiences?
Forsyth county will be voting on this April 17th.
Posted in gun control
