One of my own biggest frustrations over the past few years has been how difficult it has been to gather dog owners of ALL breeds together. Together, we’re one of the largest demographics in the country and, together, politicians would have no choice but to listen.

Many, many of the people who have supported the fight against the Ontario legislation own breeds or mixes that aren’t explicitly included in the law and some don’t own dogs at all. To those people, I appreciate your time, effort, money and the fact that you “get it”.

But there are literally hundreds of thousands of dog owners in Ontario who think it’s someone else’s problem.

How many times have I heard, “it won’t happen to us”, “our dog’s not a pit bull, why should we worry?”, “well, they have to do something about these owners and maybe this is the best way”?

Well folks, like we’ve been trying to say for a while now, it’s NOT just about pit bulls and it CAN happen to you.

Remember the different breeds listed in an earlier article, all of which have been identified by Ontario authorities as “pit bulls”. Notice I said “authorities”. These were not just average members of the public pointing at a dog and thinking they might know the breed. These were people who have the power to take your dog away and kill it.

Here’s a perfect example, this time a Labrador Retriever. Keep in mind, when you’re reading this, that six out of every seven dogs in this country do NOT have purebred registration papers. Putting it bluntly, this lady got lucky. Usually, they take your dog and keep it at a shelter, under extremely stressful conditions, while your court case winds it way through six months or a year or two years. So, even if you can prove the breed of your dog, it would normally be confiscated until the court case.

http://wagthedog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/25/3253427.html

And another, this time a Jack Russell Terrier mix.

http://wagthedog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/12/3225120.html

A person writing a comment about an earlier article questioned the accuracy of some of the statements regarding what life is like in Ontario right now. I can assure you that, even though most of these people don’t want publicity and don’t want their names used, I have talked with the majority of these people personally and, in the rest, one of our directors or lawyers has.

These are real stories happening to real people every day in this province.

Read them again at the link below and ask yourself if you really want to vote Dalton McGuinty, Michael Bryant, David Zimmer, and the rest of the Liberal Party of Ontario back into office.

http://wagthedog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/31/3197428.html